Galaxia

by Kevin McLaughlin

“What?” Laura marveled. “Are you preparing for some kind of macho, idiotic last stand? You said there was no way we could fight them.”

  “Do you have a better idea, Miss Curie?” he asked without looking back at her, focused almost totally on the approaching enemy.

  “That’s Doctor Curie, and as a matter of fact, I do.” She examined Hauptmann Shalwar briefly. He was taller than her but looked like he had about three percent body fat while not being overly muscular, either. Seventy-two, maybe seventy-three kilograms, tops.

  She grasped him by the belt and grunted with effort to heave him back, around her, and toward the river.

  “What are you—”

  Then, to ensure that he did not foolishly attempt to fight back, she tripped him. Sensibly, she did not let go of his belt.

  Her last glimpse before the two of them plunged directly into the rushing waters below was the advancing horde of marsupial rodents that glared at them and gnashed their teeth with the pathetic rage that only a dumb, hungry animal could produce.

  Now, all they had to do was survive the river itself.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Leutnant Agatha “The Bull” Ferris was not a woman who was easy to intimidate, nor was she one to shy away from unpleasant tasks that had to be done. She knew this. Nonetheless, this particular unpleasant task required her to stand a moment in the hallway before the director’s office with her hands on her hips before she took a deep breath and assumed her professional, business-like stoicism. She took two quick steps forward and pounded on the door.

  “Yes?” Ernest Roden’s unctuous voice responded.

  “Leutnant Ferris,” she said in a gruff, sharp tone. “I must speak to you.”

  “Very well, I suppose.” The man sighed. “Come in.”

  The Bull opened the door and strode along what might have been a line across the floor toward the office proper. She spared a glance at the lobby and the reception desk. Since he had answered her himself, she was unsurprised to see that his receptionist and/or secretary was not present. In fact, she could not specifically recall if she had ever seen his secretary. He might have simply occupied an office with a reception desk because that seemed more important.

  The door to the actual office was slightly ajar. She crossed purposely to it and pushed it open almost hard enough to bang it against the opposite wall. While she stood on the threshold, Roden looked at her with a half-sleepy, half-irritable expression as though he had just woken up at home and had to let a yapping little dog out to shit in the back garden before he could make tea.

  “Sir,” she said and deliberately didn’t bother with any preface since they did not have unlimited time, “we must mount a rescue mission for Hauptmann Shalwar.”

  The director simply stared at her. He had looked small behind his large desk, but it seemed he grew a little now that his authority was acknowledged.

  “Mm…no,” he stated. He looked at some paperwork he’d been scribbling on.

  “We must,” she retorted. She had clasped her hands behind her back, where they now clenched into fists. “He went after that stupid scientist woman and has not returned yet. Something must have gone wrong. The sandstorm could have prevented them from turning back. They might be alone in the Zoo as we speak. This base cannot afford to lose Hauptmann Shalwar.”

  Ernest sighed again and set his pen down next to his pile of forms. He seemed to look off into space for a second before he looked at The Bull.

  “As I’ve already said, no. A mission of that kind, at this point, would be far too expensive in terms of both supply costs, obviously, and potentially also in men. Furthermore,” he went on and the volume of his voice rose slightly, “retrieving that woman, who is untrustworthy anyway, is not exactly a high priority. We can’t shed a great many tears if she gets herself killed through her own stupidity.”

  Ferris pressed her lips tightly together and then spoke. “But the Hauptmann—”

  “Shalwar made his own decision,” interrupted Roden. “I’m surprised that he did such a thing since he usually seems to be a fairly intelligent and well-behaved officer, but at the end of the day, the rest of this base cannot be expected to bear the burden of his foolish choices. I will not mount a hasty, potentially hazardous rescue mission in the wee hours of the morning—with it still dark out, no less—for the sake of one man and that scientist.”

  The Bull did not particularly care about the woman in question. But Jan was an entirely different story.

  “Hauptmann Shalwar is the best officer we have,” she reminded him. “His leadership is responsible for many of the victories our forces have won as well as the fact that we have kept this base secure. He understands the Zoo better than any other senior officer, and the enlisted men respect him and all he does to keep them alive. He cannot be replaced. Without him, our military forces will be at a tremendous disadvantage.”

  She struggled to remain professional and convince the director that it was in his own best interest to stop Jan from dying out there. Of course, her real desire was to grab him, shake him, and shout in his face, but that would only alarm him and probably lead to him calling security. Perhaps it would even lead to her enduring a court-martial for assaulting a civilian superior.

  “Yes, yes, I know all that,” Roden responded sharply and waved his hand limply. “He does have a rather impressive track record. Yet the mere fact that he’s done something as stupid as chasing after that woman suggests that his judgment has finally been compromised and he may no longer be as fit for duty as he once was. Perhaps the strain has finally gotten to him. Or perhaps he’s merely looking to lift her skirt. Have you considered that? Hmm?” He looked directly at her, now faintly amused beneath his exasperation.

  Ferris stared at him in silence.

  “That kind of behavior appears in even the most seemingly well-disciplined men from time to time. And after all, Shalwar has been married three times, has he not? That would suggest that there’s a side to him we don’t usually see. Even I have only been married once, for God’s sake.”

  The Bull, by now, had enormous difficulty controlling her anger. The director did not actually seem to pay her much attention, but he could have seen her trembling if he had looked closely enough.

  “We can question his motives after we have saved his life,” she snapped. “Now is not the time to gossip about his love life. Even one squad to search the desert between Fort Archway and the Zoo would be better than nothing. We have to assume that he simply tried to stop the woman from escaping and that both of them became lost in the storm. And”—she brought her right hand forward, its index finger extended—“your superiors will want to know how and why it is that we managed to lose both an officer and a criminal at the same time. That could lead to an investigation of how this base is run.”

  Roden’s small mouth puckered and his watery eyes narrowed. “I will take care of such matters. Do not presume to advise me on them,” he retorted and clearly grew angry now. “I am the director of this facility, which means that all decision-making power is in my hands and only mine. And if you had paid attention, you would have heard that I have already given you my decision. No, we will not mount a rescue mission, come what may. Now, please leave my office and stop being unruly or I shall have to call someone to escort you out.” He looked at his paperwork, the gesture one of dismissal.

  It was useless. She said no more but simply turned and left, strode out through the lobby and into the hall faster than even she usually walked, and slammed the door behind her.

  By this point in her military career, she was used to having to take orders from pompous fools, but she was fairly certain that Ernest Roden represented some kind of new low. He had probably wanted to lift the British woman’s proverbial skirt himself and would now sacrifice Jan T Shalwar, the base’s finest soldier, simply to have this Dr. Curie killed out of spite. Sooner or later, Ferris would find a way to pay this imbecile back for his pettiness and incompetence.

  But for now, sh
e had to think of a way to save Jan. He was not only her boss, but he was also her friend.

  She stormed down the hallway and decided she could spare five minutes to get something nice and strong to drink while she thought of a plan. The expression on her face and the way she moved must have been interesting since soldiers who saw her widened their eyes and stepped aside to let her pass.

  As she stepped into the mess hall and adjusted her determined trajectory toward the coffee dispenser, it occurred to her that she could try simply going out after him herself. That would be stupid but it would not be impossible.

  “Nein, nein…” She sighed as she snatched a styrofoam cup and filled it to the brim with black coffee. “Jan would hate that.”

  He would view it, she was quite certain, as unnecessarily risking the lives of three people when two was already bad enough. On some level, he might appreciate her loyalty and her aid, of course, but the part of him that was all business and military efficiency would be the part that dominated the ensuing discussion.

  She knew with absolute certainty that he would criticize her for potentially losing another of the base’s competent officers. He would say that despite what he had done, she should have gone through the proper channels and acted professionally or not at all. Finally, he would point out that she had broken his rules.

  Number One, certainly. He strongly disagreed with any mission into the Zoo that included less than two full squads at a minimum, with half of the force ideally being Zoo veterans who had demonstrated their competence, or at least a coterie of tough and competent non-commissioned officers to keep the enlisted men in line. Going in alone was about as big a violation of that foremost rule as possible.

  There was also a gray area where Rules Number Five and Eleven were concerned. It wouldn’t be too much longer until the sun came up but it was still dark now, which might be enough to violate Five. And they’d restored power and thereby ended the lockdown, but he did not know that and so might take her to task for also infringing upon Eleven.

  “Scheisse,” she muttered and sipped the coffee. It felt like utter failure to stand and enjoy a drink while he was out there in God knew what kind of a mess. But until a brilliant plan occurred to her, she was helpless to intervene in his fate.

  She might perhaps have tried to undercut Roden by speaking to the actual commanding officer of the base, Major Reisenegger, but that was unlikely to succeed either. The major technically answered to Roden and besides, he was not there right now. He’d been recalled to Berlin to give a briefing to the generals and politicians and would not return for at least another week.

  There was nothing she could do.

  Her hands were tied not only by Director Roden’s idiotic proclamation that there would be no rescue but the Hauptmann’s own rules. Jan was now completely on his own.

  “Nein,” she said under her breath when she realized this was incorrect. She narrowed her eyes. He was not alone. It was even worse than that.

  He was out there with her.

  Chapter Thirty

  In the brief instant he had to think as he fell and before matters of survival again took over his consciousness, Jan reflected that he would probably be better off out there alone than he was with a woman who thought tossing him into a dangerous river was a brilliant idea.

  The world spun and faltered as he thrust into and through the surface of the churning water. Although not cold, exactly, it was still cooler than the jungle air and it shocked him—and not only the temperature. There was also the current.

  He was pulled away and under almost immediately. A dim awareness suggested that something else had plummeted into the river directly after him. Dr. Curie had caught hold of his belt and allowed his fall to drag her in as well. Beyond that, there was only near panic as he struggled to orient himself and fight his way to the surface, even as the deluge flung him one way, then the other like two children playing with a ball.

  His head pushed above the water and he gasped. While his body was still swept along, tossed about, and yanked through intricate networks of sub-currents, at least he now floated properly. He could see and breathe. Already, they were at least half a kilometer from the steep shoreline where the devilcrows had been ready for their final onslaught. A swirling shape that could only be Laura was about two meters behind him but drifting toward the center of the river.

  “This way!” he shouted, his voice harsh from exertion.

  She had managed to surface and now swam toward him, grunting as she fought through the currents.

  The hauptmann looked around and saw a low-hanging branch extending over the surface from the shore. He struggled to push himself as high as he could, stretched his arm, and caught the limb. It bent instantly under the power of the water pushing against his body, but it held.

  “Here!” he yelled.

  “Yes, I know,” she called in response. She splashed toward him and he realized that she must actually be a rather good swimmer. Nonetheless, the river was treacherous enough that her progress took a few moments. He gritted his teeth and held himself against the current while he took the full force of its spray, barely able to see or hear most of the time.

  Finally, her arm was visible, stretched toward him. Maintaining his hold on the badly strained branch with his left hand, he extended his right and caught her forearm in his grip.

  “Now try to stay—” he gasped.

  Inevitably, the wood snapped. They both tumbled through powerfully churning water, but he did not lose his hold on her arm. He tried to bear them closer to shore and fought his way through nature’s fury for every centimeter he moved against the river’s will.

  He was a thin, almost gangly man, and people were sometimes surprised at how strong he was. What he lacked in bulk, he made up for in hard, lean muscle but already, his whole body ached. To her credit, she managed to keep up with him.

  Up ahead was a large, heavy, floating log caught up in the current but moving more slowly than they were. It was big enough to obstruct the water it traveled in and forced it to go around. Jan moved toward it and tried to lead the two of them into the eddy that swirled around the log to the left. Hopefully, that would push them close enough to the shoreline that they might find solid ground or another branch.

  His hand still gripped Laura’s arm. They more or less collided with the log but the water, with a little urging from his own efforts, swept them to the left. As they passed it to the side, he felt the tip of his foot brush against mud and pebbles beneath them.

  “Find the ground,” he instructed hoarsely.

  She struggled alongside him as he pushed closer to the shore. One of his feet briefly touched solid earth, although the current was too strong for him to stand against it yet. He lost his balance and they were swept downstream while they fought their way diagonally toward the bank.

  A low branch suddenly appeared. He was focused on trying to gain a footing and missed it, but she managed to catch hold of it. A hard jerk almost pulled her loose as the current struggled against her grasp but to his surprise, she didn’t let go and the wood didn’t break, although he heard her grunt loudly with immense strain.

  He attacked the water with new determination, finally gained a foothold, and forced himself to stand. To his shock, the depth was only up to his stomach and he pulled Laura forward and up to relieve the force of the river on her beleaguered arm.

  “Let go of the branch,” he told her. She obeyed and he used all his strength to drag her through the water, past and ahead of him, where it was shallower and she might be able to stand at a similar level as he could.

  She did. Both teetered and heaved with labored breaths, already on the point of exhaustion, but realized they were almost at the shore.

  “Only a few more steps,” he said. They clutched one another’s hand tightly as they thrust through the last of the river and finally reached the mild shallows at the muddy bank.

  Before and above them lay the dark, tangled labyrinth of the jungle. Fortunatel
y, the devilcrow rampage was far away from them now.

  Panting, Jan turned to Laura and growled his annoyance. “You could have warned me before you threw me in.”

  “Well, it looked like you were on the verge of going into some crazy berserker state or something, so I didn’t think you’d listen,” she retorted. “In any event, I’m sorry, but it seems we had a better chance with the river than we would have had against far too many of those beasts to actually fight.”

  “I will allow that perhaps you are right about that,” he said in a glum tone.

  After they had caught their breath, they took stock of their possessions. Miraculously, he had retained his rifle and most of his other gear. However, he could not find his extra magazines for said rifle and he’d lost his handgun. Jan gave her his knife. She might even find a use for it given her propensity to attract trouble.

  “Rule Number Seventy-one. Always carry a knife,” he reminded her.

  “Well, thank you,” she responded and tucked it into her belt, “but since we only seem to have the one between us, that means that you’re breaking the rule yourself by giving it to me.”

  He threw his hands up and rolled his eyes. “I am reminding you to always carry one of your own in the future. Aside from that, I have a backup. For now,” he grumbled, “please do not use it on me next time you have a bright idea of what to do in an impossible situation.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied sweetly.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Despite the fact that dawn could not be too far off now, the nighttime temperature had dropped even further, and Laura shivered. The air seemed downright chilly, especially in contrast to the sweltering heat of the day. It was, of course, exacerbated by the fact that they were both soaking wet.

  “Can we make a fire?” she asked. “Or would that draw unwanted attention?”

  Jan shuddered and flexed his limbs, trying to keep warm as he rubbed his hands together.