Galaxia

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “Collecting samples is not my responsibility,” he said. “Some of our past scientists did if I am not mistaken. You will have to check the base’s archives or speak to someone in Research after we return. They would know better than I. My responsibility is to protect the base and anyone who goes into the Zoo. If I do not focus entirely on that, it becomes difficult for any research whatsoever to take place.”

  The woman seemed to bite her tongue. Clearly, she registered his attempt to get rid of her and that he hoped she’d take the hint and simply remove herself into the fold with no further resistance. He should have known better than to assume she would make it that easy on him.

  “Research,” she began and stated the word emphatically, “is what allows you and your troops to have better intelligence as to what is going on with this place, not to mention to develop better weapons, armor, antivenoms, and other kinds of countermeasures. Would you agree with this?”

  “Of course,” he replied, and followed up too fast for her to sneak a smartass comment in edgewise. “I agree that each of us has a specialized function within the overall structure of the base, the military, and the German-British alliance that helps to contain this phenomenon. You have your role to play and I have mine. Please allow me to do my part.”

  The woman sighed in what sounded like a mixture of anger and resignation. Something about the way she did it was almost cute, he thought, although he nevertheless hoped this would successfully banish her back to the soft, comfy middle of the column where she belonged.

  “I am sorry for touching your vehicle and for my outburst. I suppose it was rather inappropriate to speak to an officer like that when I’d only just arrived. I must have simply been a little flummoxed to find all these people around speaking German since no one had even told me about the alliance between our countries.”

  Jan allowed one eyebrow to rise slightly in mild surprise, as this was not what he had expected her to say. “‘Flummoxed?’ English is truly a fascinating language.”

  Dr. Curie snickered at that. “Yes, well. It means…ah, caught unawares, or surprised or being put in a situation where you’re not quite sure what to—”

  “I know what it means,” he replied. “I simply had not heard it in a very long time.”

  “Oh, I see,” she said. “In any event, despite my apology, what I had to say during that outburst still stands. You really should actually post all your rules somewhere or distribute them as a document or something if you expect people to follow every last one of them.”

  Jan frowned and did not look at her as he continued through the jungle. She spoke softly enough, at least, that most of the other troops wouldn’t hear. Plus, the speed at which she talked meant that some of those who weren’t particularly fluent in English might have difficulty understanding her anyway. Meanwhile, Wenzel did a fine job of focusing on the trail that would lead them to Klaus’s team.

  “And if I recall correctly,” Curie went on, “you accused me of having broken Rule Number Forty-Two. Are there really that many? How many are there in total?”

  “There are as many as there need to be,” he replied in a lower voice but with a sharper edge than he had used earlier. “My philosophy of leadership is to maintain whatever rules are necessary for the general benefit of this base and its personnel and the objectives of whatever mission we are on. Each of my rules helps to ensure our success, and in a place like the Zoo, success means survival. Everything I do is to keep people safe—including tourists who come to a dangerous place in the distant wilderness wearing high heels.”

  They passed under and through an overhanging mass of flowering vines rather like the ridiculous curtains of beads found in some nightclubs. A little farther ahead of them and to the right, he noticed a sharp ravine. They had moved gradually but steadily uphill. He did not recall a ravine in this area, but the Zoo changed its own interior topography seemingly at will.

  “You really ought to lighten up, you know,” the woman said and pointed a finger at him. The expression on her face suggested that she somehow found this half-funny. “And furthermore, I’ll have you know that when you had me gear up for this expedition, I took care of that particular matter. I’m wearing a full expedition suit. Look, no more high heels.” She held up her booted foot as proof.

  He glanced toward her feet. Wenzel seemed to try to catch his attention to inform him of something up ahead, though, so he didn’t see much and decided he would simply take her word for it.

  Curie, however, would not be brushed off. She apparently insisted that he confirm that yes, she wore boots. Women truly needed so much attention. That was a lesson he’d tried to learn but, over the course of his three marriages, had apparently failed.

  “See?” she said and raised the other leg to show off her booted foot. “Perfectly acceptable footwear for—whoa!”

  She toppled toward the ravine and Jan’s reflexes kicked in. He was beside her in an instant. His arms darted out, his hands seized hers, and his feet dug into the dirt to brace himself against whatever solid outcropping he could find.

  “Oh, shit,” the researcher said. Like a ballerina in mid-pose, she hung poised over the precipice with both hands clenched in his.

  His pulse had increased but now that he’d stopped her from falling, he relaxed slightly. Still, this particular little ordeal wasn’t quite over yet. “When I pull back,” he said, “throw yourself forward.”

  “What? Throw?” she protested.

  “Do as I say,” he snapped.

  “Oh, very well.” She sighed.

  He pulled back and she lurched forth—or flopped, really. Most of her collapsed forward into him, aside from the dangling leg which continued to wriggle freely as they drew safely away from the ravine.

  “Good catch, Hauptmann,” someone said.

  Jan ignored the man as he stood the slightly dazed Dr. Curie on her feet and brushed himself off. “Pay attention to your surroundings,” he said. “That is not on my list of rules because it is so obvious that it would have to be Number Zero if anything.”

  “Well, you were the one who distracted me by calling attention to my footwear, of all ridiculous things,” she retorted. “Shit, I have mud all over my…everything, really.”

  “We cannot afford to delay for the sake of mud on someone’s suit,” he said. Wenzel still seemed to have something to say to him. “I have done my duty for now, which is to protect you, even if it means riding your ass.”

  “That is what she said,” someone remarked.

  His head snapped toward the direction of the comment and he glared at the nearest men. Beside him, Dr. Curie snorted and burst out laughing. The joke was an old and stupid one the Americans had come up with, but perhaps the British woman simply found it funny when attempted in a German accent.

  Jan gritted his teeth and tried not to blush, left the scientist and his loudmouthed men behind for the moment, and trudged ahead to speak to his scout. Thank God Wenzel probably had something actually important to share.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Laura felt better now, although she was still rather irritated with Hauptmann Shalwar and his anal-retentive attitude problem. The improvement in her overall mood was a little surprising, given that she probably looked terrible half-covered with mud. Still, this was a jungle safari of sorts so a little mud and grime were to be expected.

  “You know,” she said out loud but mostly to herself, “this place really is like somewhere the doctor might visit on one of his adventures.” She’d fallen back toward the middle of the formation as Jan had suggested. He’d gone ahead to confer with his scout or tracker-person so it was pointless even trying to continue the conversation.

  “Oh, you like Doctor Who also?” said a young, round-faced German soldier who marched alongside her. “I have seen every single episode except the newest ones.”

  She laughed. “Yes. However did you guess that was what I meant? I could have been talking about any number of doctors.”

  “No,
I knew,” the man insisted, smiled, and seeming to drift to some distant and pleasant location deep within his own head. “I have toy sonic screwdriver at home.”

  “Brilliant. I wanted one when I was a little girl, but I was constantly distracted by science kits and documentaries and things. To be honest, I’ve only seen perhaps three-quarters or so of the entire run of the program. There are so many episodes.”

  “Ja,” the young soldier agreed. “My favorite is the one with the aliens.”

  “Oh,” she replied. “I…oh, I know exactly which one you’re referring to. Yes.”

  Several men behind them laughed loudly, and two of them yammered away in German and poked the round-faced fellow in the back, making fun of him, she assumed. He argued in return and looked slightly embarrassed but also amused by whatever the hell they were discussing. She told herself it was good that she’d given them something to joke around about. At least she was talking to people and by this point, they didn’t seem to dislike her.

  As the conversation amongst the men proceeded, she looked around at the Zoo’s fantastical menagerie of flora. Some of the vines were the size of Burmese pythons and flowers dotted through the foliage had petals as big as race car pennants. Most of the trees were both tall and thick enough that they might as well have been centuries old, although she knew the Zoo had only existed for a year if that. It was truly incredible, and she hoped that the Hauptmann would allow her to gather samples when it was safe.

  “Alarm!” someone cried.

  Laura continued to walk for a second but stopped when she saw that everyone else had halted. She froze and attempted to snap out of her scientific reverie as all around her, soldiers tensed, raised their guns, and assumed combat positions. This was not good.

  Creatures with what looked like leathery brown scales and three canine heads approached them head-on through the part of the jungle into which they’d pressed. Above and to the sides, she could hear what, at first, sounded like the wind rustling the leaves of the trees but soon seemed more like a mass of large objects—or living beings—moving through them. Alongside that sound was a growing, unpleasant buzzing.

  “Heuschrecken!” someone else said. Their sergeants were everywhere at once to shout orders and shove men into position.

  As the troops all bustled into their places to prepare for battle, she decided that the best thing for her to do was nothing. She would stand perfectly still at the approximate center of the entire troop and allow the professionals to do their jobs. If she tried to interfere with the fight, she’d very likely screw something up or get in someone’s way.

  The soldiers seemed to form into something like a triangle, and it did not take long for her to see the reasoning behind this. From the front came the onslaught of the three-headed monsters that howled and advanced with surprising speed on their stumpy reptilian legs. From above and to the sides came two separate flocks of what could only be giant flying insects. Her mouth dropped open and her jaw hung like a rusty old mailbox lid.

  Then, the guns opened fire.

  “Oh, Jesus!” she exclaimed, almost fell, and lurched downward. Even with the noise reduction of the suits, she had not expected it to be so loud. It was as if the entire world had exploded all around her and dozens of bombs detonated in their tight little metal echo chambers.

  The mutant creatures were upon them, and things lashed and clawed and bit at the men in front. Others swooped overhead, landed on trees nearby, or plummeted amidst the humans to lash out with knife-like claws. The guns continued to blaze. Their muzzles made bright flashes of fire and tracer rounds accompanied the bullets that cut through wood, exoskeleton, and flesh to fill the air with splintered wood and misting blood.

  A huge locust landed almost in front of her, and she stared at it in disbelief, painfully conscious of the fact that she was unarmed. Her brief career as a hacker of state secrets had made her aware that these existed. They were the first monsters the Zoo had produced and there had been many different varieties recorded. These were the size of large dogs or small men, dark-green in color, horned, and fanged, with powerful wings and sharp claws. And one stood mere paces away and looked at her.

  A rifle much closer roared amidst all the other gunfire and the locust reared and flailed as the bullets punctured its husk and shredded its eyes and limbs.

  Laura looked up. A large man—she was fairly sure he was one of Jan’s sergeants—had saved her. Smoke rose from the barrel of his automatic rifle.

  “You!” he grunted. “Hide!” He caught her by the shoulder and shoved her toward a thick growth of small, bowed trees whose trunks intertwined. As she stumbled toward them, she saw him hurry toward where most of the other men on this side of the formation had assembled to drive the locusts into the jungle.

  She dropped to her knees and crawled backward into the small space formed beneath the intersection-point of the trees. Unfortunately, she wasn’t entirely hidden and anything could have seen her there from most angles. She was, however, sheltered for the most part. It was a hell of a lot better than nothing at a time like this.

  From her position of pseudo-safety, she watched the battle unfold with a mixture of awe and nauseated fear. She had never seen actual combat before but Jan’s men seemed damn good at it.

  The two lines closest to her that formed the sides of the triangle drew closer to one another to give themselves more room to hold back the insects, and they seemed to be succeeding. At least one or two of the hideous bugs dropped each second or so, and none of the men had fallen although one screamed and staggered between the lines, clutching his bleeding arm.

  The other line at the front that created the base of the triangle had a slightly easier task, it seemed, since the cerberuscrocs— that had to be what they were—were not airborne and instead, had simply charged blindly at the human intruders. The creatures were as vicious as they were hideous and seemed in no way hampered by their short legs. The three canine heads each had a long neck that enabled them to move with lethal speed despite their low, crocodilian body. Their assault had been ferocious, but the team’s rapid response had already broken it. Now, a dozen of the creatures lay dead or dying. From what she’d read of them, she was glad none got close enough to sink their teeth in.

  Cerberuscrocs had a venomous bite that rendered their victims instantly paralyzed. Eventually, the venom’s effects spread to the organs, stopped the heart, and death was inevitable. If caught in time, the progress could be slowed with antivenom, but this generally had to be injected soon after the bite. Even though the suits should protect them from this potentially lethal attack, no one wanted to test it. She could see why the men fought so hard to keep the venomous maws at bay. A man with a shotgun aimed at one that came too close, despite the fact that it had already lost two of its heads. He fired and the monster did an impromptu backflip while its one remaining head disintegrated into a cloud of chunky, dripping fragments.

  “Well,” Laura whispered to herself, although she could not even hear the sound of her own voice under the guns’ reports and the Zoo creatures’ screams. “It seems they know what they’re doing and have this under control. Yes. It’s all going perfectly well, really.” Her heart thumped against her ribs as if to contradict her.

  Only ten feet ahead of her, a man fell and she crawled back in alarm. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be fatally wounded and had been bumped from the side by a locust that had also put a few long but shallow scratches across his chest. He was, however, helpless for the moment, having stumbled and rolled head over heels and even dropped his gun. His attacker watched his somersault and seemed to hesitate between delivering a killing strike or attacking the other soldiers.

  Laura drew in a sharp breath. “Ohhh, shit,” she said and cursed herself mentally with everything that came to mind for what she was about to do.

  She scuttled forward, darted up, and emerged from her hiding place to grasp the fallen man’s hands and wrists. They clamped around hers, hot and sweaty, and she pulle
d him back toward the three bent trees in time to avoid another swipe from the mutant’s claws. Panting slightly, she deposited him where she herself had crouched.

  “Ha! I actually saved someone,” she said.

  Unfortunately, the locust she had saved him from now looked at her. It hopped closer.

  Laura reached down and hurriedly snatched up the rifle the man had dropped. It occurred to her that she had almost no idea how to fire one of them, at least not in terms of the specifics. Everyone knew the basics, though. Aim the little pointy thing on top of the barrel at the target and pull the trigger. How hard could it be? Although the gun seemed awfully heavy.

  She aimed tentatively and suddenly, the locust pounced. A cry of alarm died in her throat. Although she hadn’t quite managed to squeeze the trigger yet, to her shock, she registered a powerful cracking sound and one of the creature’s eyes exploded into a mass of blackish goo. A few more reports followed, closer to her throbbing ears, and the locust collapsed, its head mostly destroyed.

  With a sharp intake of breath, she looked over her shoulder. Jan stood there, aiming his handgun, from which a trace of blue-gray smoke rose. He spared her one quick glance before he ran ahead to reinforce those of his men who finished the business of driving off the rest of the locusts. The cerberuscrocs seemed to have all been slaughtered.

  “Thanks, but I had that covered,” she shouted after him but her attempt at humor fell flat. In truth, she felt rather pleased to see he had stepped in to save her. Next time, she might not be so lucky.

  With a shrug, she returned to the trees and lent an arm to the soldier she’d rescued, helped him stand, and gave him his rifle. He didn’t seem too badly off, all things considered.

  “Danke,” he said.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied. “Maybe you can return the favor one day.” Now that she’d seen these creatures first-hand, she had the feeling she would need all the help she could get.