“This world, and this ocean, is what happens when climate change doesn’t tame it.” Jane turned to the young man. “In our benign world on the surface, great and terrible beasts rose to prominence, but mass extinctions removed them from the planet. Whether it was ice ages, mega droughts, or asteroid impacts, the monsters of the past were removed.” She turned back to the distant water. “But not here. Here they just kept getting bigger and badder.”
Alistair nodded, and then looked from Jane to Mike. “Those monsters of the past were magnificent: the dinosaurs, the mega fauna, the geology. Hey, did you know that after the dinosaurs’ reign had ended, the time of giants hadn’t? As an example, when the great mammals ruled there was a creature called a Paraceratherium that was twenty-five feet tall and weighed in at twenty tons; a relative of the rhino. Looked like a giant horse, but three times bigger than the biggest elephant.”
Mike whistled.
Alistair pressed his hands together. “Would you not give anything to see them or one of the largest saurians again?” He smiled. “I’ve studied arthropods all my life, but have been captivated by the thought they were once the rulers of the planet during the Permian period nearly 300million years ago.”
Alistair waved an arm out at the vast jungle. “I want to see them as I doubt I’ll ever get back here.”
Jane snorted derivatively. “Yeah, Mike said the same thing.”
“And you too.” Alistair smiled.
“Let’s not go there right now.” Jane folded her arms. “Take it from someone who traveled on that sea: it’s more deadly than anything you can imagine. We lost good people to what lives in it.” She smiled ruefully. “I don’t want to see anyone else, or you, die, Alistair.”
He looked back at the sea. “No one actually plans on dying, ever.”
“Group discussion over, the ridge it is then,” Harris proclaimed. “Let’s get moving.”
“I will see it before I leave.” Alistair turned away. “Of that I am sure.”
The pathways they moved along were seared by the red radioactive heat from above that had beaten down unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.
Mars, Mike thought. This was how he imagined the surface of the red planet must look if you trekked along its surface. Except the Mars temperature was about eighty degrees below zero and its surface was subject to continual blasting windstorms. But down here, though there was a form of weather in the inner world, there was no tectonic plate movement, no real severe climatic shifts that created glaciations or drought, and so the atmosphere and environment remained largely frozen in place.
Most of the group had thrown shawls over their hats to act as long veils to keep the reflected glare off their faces, and their march in the one hundred and ten degrees was arduous and energy sapping.
Many times during their climb they encountered weird objects attached to the rocks that could have been some sort of unique geological formation, or maybe even an ancient limpet species that had long since petrified to stone. The major difference being that these things were three feet across.
The rocks to the peak were harsh, sharp and dangerous, and any slip meant damage that penetrated their thick clothing. But the uneven nature of the rocks wasn’t everywhere; now and then there were places that were glass-smooth that could have been polished.
Alistair crouched by one and rubbed it with his fingers. “Sort of looks like it’s been finely sanded.” He snorted softly, and then looked up. “I wonder if the heat and radiation did this somehow?”
He then stood and walked to one of the limpet things. He kicked at one and then stamped at it, but the thing was either bedded down tight or part of the actual stone. Penny barked at him to stay in line like a mother scolding their child.
“Fossilized I think,” Alistair said. “But possibly once was some form of oversized Patellogastropodaa polyphyletic limpet.” He looked about. “But what are they doing away from the water?”
“Maybe they dried out; hence why they’re all just fossils now,” Jane replied.
Alistair pinched his lower lip as he walked up and over the top of another. “Maybe.”
In another fifteen minutes they came to a flatter area just before the mountain ridge started to decrease in size. The water now lapped at the rocks below, and looking down they could occasionally make out things swimming languidly in its depths. Alistair stared as if hypnotized.
“Good a place as any,” Harris announced. “Take five… and only five.”
The group sat, letting packs slide from soaked backs, and then used their veils to firstly wipe their faces and then pull them further over their heads. They nibbled on remaining protein bars that were hard to swallow in dry mouths. The upside was that the jungle ahead was lush and thick, and promised water somewhere hidden within its mad green tangle. Even Mike forgot about the dangers lurking inside, as fresh water was all that mattered.
He turned to Jane. “Hey, remember showers?”
“Pfft.” She leaned closer. “And baths filled to the brim.” She flipped her veil up. “And swimming pools with a wet bar at one end.”
Mike groaned. “I’m homesick for my cabin by the lake. The cool, blue lake.”
She dropped her veil. “You mean your fortress of solitude?”
“If I asked you, would you come and stay there with me?” He rested his chin on his hand.
“You’d have to ask re-eeeally nicely.” She lifted one edge of her veil, revealing one eye. “And even then I might say no.”
“Ooh, a challenge.” He smiled. “I can be charming and persuasive when I want to be.”
Alistair sat on one of the large shield-like objects stuck to the rocks and splashed a little of his precious water on it, then quickly pulled a magnifying glass out and examined its structure.
“Definitely biomineralization. Sclerotin I think,” he said to no one in particular. He looked up and caught Jane watching him. “Sclerotin is a component of the cuticles of various Arthropoda, most familiarly insects.”
“So, not a limpet?” she asked.
“Hybrid, maybe?” He went back to rubbing the rapidly drying wet patch on the fossil with his thumb and then held the spyglass over it again.
“Sclerotin is formed by meshing together of different sorts of protein molecules. It increases the rigidity of an insect’s chitinous exoskeleton that gives them their armorplating.” He moved so close his nose was now almost touching the thing. “It’s especially strong in the plating over the head, back, and the biting mouthparts of arthropods.”
“So, an insect.” Mike smiled. “Or was once.”
Alistair chuckled. “Yeah.” He lay the magnifying glass down, reached into his pack for a sample bag, and unsheathed his knife.
“Going to try and collect some.” He began to chip away at the thing with little success, and then moved to the side. The young scientist then tried to dig the blade in where the limpet thing was fused to the rock.
The toughened steel was hard and sharp and he managed to wedge it in a fraction. “Hey…” he frowned as he got down to give himself more leverage as he worked the blade in.
With a tearing, sticky sound the oval thing rose up on multiple pointed legs. Two quivering feelers erupted from the end closest to Alistair as he fell back and just stared.
Penny rushed toward the young man, and as she did, two tiny, black eyes fixed on her movement. A jet of orange liquid shot out, directed at the woman doctor. Most of the sticky fluid missed her, but about half a cup full splashed her arm.
Penny looked at it, and then in the next second grabbed her elbow. Holding the arm out she began to scream, steam rising from her limb.
Mike jumped to his feet and sprinted to her. Alistair scuttled back as the forgotten bug thing now looked like it was positioning itself to spit more venom or bile or whatever the corrosive fluid was.
Harris ran forward and pumped a dozen rounds into the thing. Every shot struck its outer shell and ricocheted away, so he dived flat and put just as
many more into where it had risen from the ground, and what he hoped was its unprotected belly.
This time the bullets penetrated but instead of trying to flee, or keeling over from its wounds, the creature simply hunkered down and hugged the rock again.
Penny continued to scream as her hand and arm turned a blistering red. The liquid that now dropped from her limb was also foaming with blood as the caustic substance dissolved her flesh.
Mike emptied the last of his canteen water on it and held her tight. “Grit your teeth, this is going to hurt like hell.”
Penny did as asked as Mike began to use a towel to wipe her arm down. Penny looked away and courageously only let a groan of pain slip between her bared teeth.
In another second she slumped as she slipped into unconsciousness. Ally went through the female doctor’s bag as she searched for antibiotics, painkillers, and gauze.
She held up a small bottle. “Got some water here.” She handed it to Jane and she splashed the woman’s scarred arm again.
Jane looked at the damaged flesh as Mike waited to bind it. “Skin’s gone, and some of the epidermal fat layer.” She patted it dry.
“Ready for this?” Ally held up a small shaker of antiseptic powder.
“Yeah, while she’s out cold.” Jane held Penny’s arm out.
Ally shook some of the powder onto the arm which immediately soaked up the weeping fluid from the acid burns.
Mike then began to bind the arm. “Will it heal?”
“Down here? Not a chance.” Jane grimaced. “More than likely she’ll need a skin graft.”
Harris pointed his gun at the now motionless bug that had attacked them, and then swung the muzzle to Alistair. “Hey asshole, can we damn well stop pissing the bugs off?”
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I thought it was dead, a fossil.” Alistair hovered over Penny. He looked up, his features wrecked. “Please tell me she’ll be alright.”
Jane waited until Mike finished. She checked the binding wasn’t too tight. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it but she needs to be in a hospital. The longer we’re down here, the more chance of infection.”
Alistair held his head and groaned.
Mike looked around. They were in the center of about half a dozen of the limpet-like bug things and they had been walking between them for an hour. But for now, they had all gone back to pretending they were part of the geology.
“What was it?’ Mike asked the young man.
Alistair just rocked back and forth holding his head.
“Alistair!” Mike roared.
“Huh?” Alistair looked up. “I don’t know. There’s nothing like that, well, not exactly. It’s like a cross between a limpet and a slater bug.”
“They don’t spit acid,” Ally said. “No bug I know topside does that.”
Penny started to come around and Alistair slowly got to his feet. “Musgraveia sulciventris.” He kept his eyes on the woman, his forehead deeply creased. “Or more commonly known as the bronze stink bug, they live on citrus plants. They concentrate the citric acid in their guts and can shoot it out of their abdomens in a jet. It can kill predators, or even blind inquisitive pets.”
“Thank god it didn’t get her in the face,” Jane said softly.
“We should move soon,” Mike added.
“Agreed; can she walk?” Harris asked.
“Walk, yes. Climb, no.” Jane bobbed her head. “But she’ll be in pain, and if it gets infected then…”
“Good enough. Get the hell out of here.” Harris cut across her and then glared at the young scientist. “Alistair, you get to carry our doctor. And you better hope she improves, as I’m thinking we damn well need her more than we need you right now.”
CHAPTER 21
“Is that a person down there?” Doctor Nadia Zima squinted into the distance.
Dmitry followed her gaze and after a few moments turned to her. “Where? There’s nothing.”
Nadia frowned. “In that clearing, there was a large man, I think a man. Looking up at us.”
The Russian team stood on a slight hill that was sparsely populated with clumps of trees with huge paddle-like leaves. Orange pendulous bulbs hung from their branches that might have been fruits, but not a single one was being eaten by any local creature, so they left them be.
“Was it a human?” Chekov asked. He handed the scientist his field glasses.
Nadia took them to scan the foliage of the clearing again. “I think human-shaped, but they looked extraordinarily large.” She lowered the glasses. “Gone now.”
“Well, that’s where we’re heading. So either he, it, didn’t see us, or did see us, and didn’t want to be scrutinized. Either way, we may find out soon enough.” Dmitry turned to Chekov. “A moment, Leonid.”
He walked a few paces away and his friend followed.
“You think there may be trouble? An ambush?” Chekov asked.
“I think we need to be ready. Our little babushka, Ms Babikov, never mentioned any people down here. Maybe they are from the surface as well, yes?” Dmitry looked back at the group. “We leave in two minutes.” He then moved closer to Chekov. “I don’t want to panic the scientists, but tell the military team to be ready for an assault.”
“Understood.” Chekov headed to where Sasha and Viktor stood talking softly as they loaded up their packs.
Dmitry checked his weapons, making sure they were functional and fully loaded then waved the team on.
The strange paddle-like trees became sparser as they traveled down into a small valley and there came bursts of strange color growing in clumps that had waving tendrils and gave off a citrus-sweet odor. The scientist, Oleg, sniffed and approached one of them.
From about six-feet back he peered in. “It’s attracting animals to it and trapping them in some sort of sticky extrusion.”
Dmitry paused to watch for a while and saw some of the stout tendrils had fist-sized creatures stuck to them.
Oleg turned. “I bet those tips are loaded with stingers.” He grinned. “You know what it reminds me of?” His eyebrows went up.
“A sea anemone,” Nadia quickly finished for him.
“Yes, thank you.” Oleg’s face dropped at the intrusion. He turned back to the thing. “A land anemone?” He slowly lifted a hand and held it closer.
“Don’t,” Dmitry said. “If you get stung and cannot walk, no one will carry you.”
“I just wanted to…” He shook his head as if to clear it. “I’m okay.” He then reached into his pack for his camera and took several pictures of the strange plant or creature. “For our records.”
“Hurry up.” Dmitry turned and then led them down the slope.
As they traveled, they trampled down a spreading clover-like ground cover that squished and bled a green sap beneath their feet. Once exposed to the air, it oxidized and changed to a brilliant red, and when looking back, it clearly showed their path in a trail of bloody footprints.
It was only when they reached the bottom of the slope that Dmitry saw the benefit of this: there were other fading footprints at the ground level.
“Oleg,” Dmitry called up to his scientist. “What do you make of these?” He pointed at the line of faint tracks.
The biologist knelt beside several series of prints. “By the look of the depths of our tracks compared to the shape and size of these, then this thing must have been of considerable size; twenty feet and a maybe a ton in weight.”
Oleg moved aside a little to a different set of tracks. “But these here are strange. Sometimes this particular creature walks in a bipedal fashion and other times it seems to move more on legs. And it doesn’t seem to be much bigger than we are.”
“The person I saw?” Nadia suggested.
Oleg turned to her. “Maybe you are right. The footprints of the biped seem to be the most recent; they’re still bleeding sap.”
Dmitry held up a hand. “Quiet… listen.”
The group stopped moving or talking and concentrated.
“You hear that?” Dmitry asked.
Chekov nodded. “It sounds like horns blowing.”
EPISODE 09
“It seems wisest to assume the worst from the beginning...and let anything better come as a surprise” ― Jules Verne
CHAPTER 22
Ray Harris raised a hand to stop the group. He held his position for a half-minute with his head tilted.
Mike looked from the man to the jungle and then whispered close to Jane’s ear, “What’s happening?”
She shook her head. “I think he’s listening for something.”
Ally finally approached him. “What is it?”
“Did you hear that?” Harris asked with a furrowed brow.
Ally turned back to the water, and then the thick jungle ahead and looked along the distant wall of towering trees. After a moment she shook her head.
“I got nothing.”
Harris finally shook his head. “Forget it.” He chuckled softly. “Sounded like Gabriel’s trumpet.”
They continued, and though they had now crossed over most of the water, their mountain range had reduced to little more than a raised rocky shelf and they would soon re-enter the jungle.
Harris stopped again when they were just a quarter-mile from coming off their rocky path and waved them all down.
“We’ll take five here. The jungle is always a little more… stressful.” He sat down against a slab of raw granite.
Mike noticed he looked ill or was reaching the limit of his endurance. Perhaps the man hadn’t slept well, or was finally showing the effects of the arduous mission. Mike would have loved to have Penny look him over.
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