Nepenthe Rising

by John Triptych

  A second loud collision on the vehicle’s roof made Strand wince. Another griglak had somehow gotten on top. “Well, I got killer giant frogs trying to open up this thing like a sardine can.”

  “Hang tight. You’ve been through worse. I’m beginning atmospheric entry now. See you soon,” Xander said before turning off the com-link.

  Strand frowned as he gunned the accelerator. “Riight.”

  Tearing noises coming from the roof, and the view from the remote cameras told him the two griglaks were ripping into the ATV, using their acid spit to burn through the gaps in the paneling before working their claws and teeth to rip open the vehicle’s outer shell.

  Strand activated the lidar as the ATV’s speed gradually increased. “You big frogs want to play? Okay.”

  Using the added momentum, Strand began juking the ATV back and forth, forcing the griglaks on top to stop their attacks and making them use their claws to hold on. Switching over to six-wheel drive transmission to get a firmer grip on the ground, Strand made an evasive maneuver at the last second every time a large piece of rock suddenly revealed itself ahead of him.

  One of the griglaks could no longer hang on as the vehicle fishtailed while bouncing off the side of a small hill. The creature’s hold loosened, and it was thrown clear when the ATV nearly came to an abrupt stop before veering away.

  “One down, one to go,” Strand said while placing his foot on the accelerator once more. The terrain ahead had begun to flatten out, and he could push the ATV even faster now.

  The remaining griglak on the roof sensed it was running out of time. Using its head as a sort of battering ram, it smashed into the damaged middle part of the ceiling, puncturing the vehicle’s once formidable outer shell with a combination of strength and relentless determination. The creature’s acid-filled snout had weakened the nanocarbon, and now its tip suddenly burst forth into the interior.

  Strand shouted in surprise as the vehicle alarms began howling, telling him in a calm, automated voice about the atmospheric breach inside the cabin. He could feel the sudden onrush of alien air, filling his nostrils with the sharp, rotten odors of volcanic sulfur and carbonyl. He made more rapid twists and turns on the steering wheel, hoping to get rid of the creature once and for all.

  The griglak wasn’t satisfied. It continued to use its head like a drill, enlarging the breach with the constant pounding of its snout, letting more of the poisonous air into the interior, straining the vehicle’s life support system to its limit.

  “Now you’re really pissing me off,” Strand muttered as he activated the autodrive after inputting the coordinates into the dashboard AI. With the cabin rapidly filling with poisonous air, he leaned sideways and grabbed the helmet in the emergency cabinet.

  After placing his head into the helmet and engaging the universal neck seal, a cool rush of oxygen and nitrogen made him cough the remaining wisps of carbon monoxide out of his lungs. The cockpit had already sealed the secondary hatch behind him in order to localize the breach made in the rearward cabin, but he manually opened it up again.

  The griglak had slowly enlarged the hole in the roof, but it could only push through the forward tip of its snout before being slightly repelled by the human-compatible atmosphere inside.

  Strand shook his head as he drew out the laser pistol from his hip holster. “So it looks like you monsters ain’t so smart after all. Seems you don’t like our oxygen.”

  Sitting beside the inner hatch, he aimed and fired the weapon at the creature’s snout. Although the griglaks were armored, the areas around their mouthparts and sinuses were exposed, and the pulsed laser flashes made an impact, burning off a corner of the griglak’s snout. The unexpected injury forced the creature to withdraw its head back above the roof.

  Stumbling into the rear cabin while keeping the weapon aimed at the gaping hole in the roof, Strand looked up to see if he could get another good shot. “Peek-a-boo, you big ugly piece of crap.”

  The highly aggressive griglak answered him back by pouring a stream of acid through the breach. Strand yelped as he threw himself back, narrowly avoiding the spray of lethal droplets that began burning the floor of the cabin.

  Strand cursed as he pointed the pistol and fired a few wild bursts through the hole. “You are one piece of work!”

  The griglak didn’t want to give up, and the creature used its strong, stubby legs to pound the top of the roof, rocking the ATV back and forth as the vehicle began traversing across the smooth landscape of dried lava flows. The monster thought about attacking once more when it suddenly heard something bigger than itself coming down from the sky. The griglak spat one final stream of acid into the damaged roof before jumping off and making its way back towards the mist for easier fare.

  25 Absconding

  With his body still dripping puddles of bio-gel, Garrett Strand slipped into a skinsuit inside the Eon Shrike’s main airlock as the ship lifted off. The g-force pinned him to the side of the small compartment while the vessel thrust herself into Horizon’s low orbit, but he had managed to strap himself down while putting on his outerwear, just like he’d been trained to do years before. There were lots of things on his mind, yet the loss of his entire team stung him the most.

  Once the null gravity set in, he unstrapped himself and floated towards the inner hatch. Xander Gunhardt barely hovered his ship above the stricken ATV while waiting for him to get inside, and Strand regretted having to leave the ground vehicle behind. Nevertheless, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

  Passing through the compact access tunnel, Strand opened the hatch that led into the small cockpit and pulled himself inside. “We can’t leave yet. Two of my operators got taken by the parasites.”

  Xander sat in his customary padded chair at the front of the cockpit. “Like hell we can’t. I’ve just heard this whole planet’s going on lockdown after the stunt your team pulled.”

  Strand grimaced as he strapped himself down on the other chair. “Look, I know we screwed up, but we need to find a way to get my people back. I can’t just leave them to the dogs down there.”

  “Garrett, we lack the firepower and the personnel to attempt a rescue mission,” Xander said. “Athena, what’s the sitrep down on the planet?”

  The Eon Shrike’s AI network retained her ever-sensuous tone. “Both the Union and Concordance orbital stations have just ordered all ships not to leave the system, you sexy thing.”

  Strand shook his head in disgust. “Can’t you alter her audio to give a more serious take on this?”

  “Hey, you don’t like my AI then get back into the airlock, dude,” Xander said. “He didn’t mean that, Athena. Garrett just gets too serious at times.”

  “Oh I’m not offended,” Athena said, giggling. “A dishy man like Garrett could never hurt my feelings. He just gets me even more excited.”

  Strand wanted to roll his eyes but decided on discretion instead. “What are our options?”

  “We need to get out of this system, that’s what,” Xander said, gripping the control stick. “Athena, switch over to manual.”

  “Manual override engaged,” Athena said. “Xander, another com-link message just came through; it’s directed at all vessels in the system.”

  “Play it.”

  A flat-toned voice came online. “Attention, a state of emergency has been declared over the entire Epsilon Carinae system. All ships must dock with their respective stations or remain on the planet’s surface and submit themselves for immediate inspection. All ships within the vicinity of the dark matter fields must proceed towards Horizon and await further instructions. All automated security protocols have been initiated. Any vessel attempting to leave will be fired upon.”

  “Wonderful. This is going to make our getaway much harder,” Xander said. He glanced over at the man sitting behind him. “The next job I take from you people is gonna cost you double, you hear me?”

  Strand bit his lip. He was still at a loss as to how it had ended up like this.
“Everything was going according to plan. I thought we had disabled all the damned robots in the quarantine area, then this goddamn security bot just came out of nowhere. It must have been on some sort of AI network that wasn’t tied in with the Institute’s outpost.”

  “Acceleration steady at four-gees, just passing through geosynchronous orbit now,” Athena said. “We just got a hail from the Union space station, telling us to decelerate and dock with them.”

  “Ignore them,” Xander said before glancing back at his friend once more. “Get over it, Garrett. We had our own share of failures during our time with the VIPR teams, remember? You win some, you lose some.”

  Strand let out a snort. “The mission before this almost went belly up too. Everything was going well until two people in the space station at Kolob ended up being synths posing as humans. It’s a clear violation of the singularity treaties.”

  “You came under attack by synths disguised as humans? Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that in all my years working both sides of the fence.”

  Strand let out a long sigh. “I lost three spacers because of it. It’s like they were waiting for us, just like what’s happening now.”

  “There’s a small fleet of ships heading towards the planet just ahead of us,” Athena said. “What do we do, sugar?”

  “They must be heeding the command to pull over at the station,” Xander said. “Any of them warships?”

  “All incoming ships seem to be registered as civilian vessels,” Athena said. “No warships detected in system so far.”

  “It’s gonna change now since the alert’s been sounded,” Xander said. “Plot a parallel course in the opposite heading, but be ready for full-thrust evasive maneuvering if any of them fire at us.”

  “Anything you say, honey.”

  Strand sighed. “Now I lost two more and another pair were captured. Something’s not right.”

  Xander continued to stare at the instruments while listening. “I know it hurts to lose, but you need to get over it.”

  “It’s the freaking reversal of fortune I don’t get,” Strand said. “It’s like someone knows what we’re up to, always one step ahead.”

  “You’re getting paranoid. A sure sign of old age.”

  “Shut up,” Strand said.

  “You’re looking for someone to blame, I get it, but sometimes you just have to accept it’s all bad luck.”

  “No,” Strand said. “It’s more than that. It’s like someone cast a wide net and we keep getting caught in it.”

  “Well, if you want my take on it then you need to tell me the whole story,” Xander said. “What are you supposed to be doing in this dung heap of a system anyway? I can think of far richer places to plunder.”

  “Testing a theory.”

  Xander chuckled. “That’s it? You went all the way here, paid me a lot of money, and took a loss to do some testing?”

  “The girl we took along,” Strand said. “She was special.”

  “In what way?”

  “She has a sort of power, and I’ve seen it firsthand,” Strand said. “She took out a heavy-duty security bot. On her own. No weapons.”

  “For real?”

  “Yup,” Strand said, “and she did it by controlling the artifact down on Horizon.”

  Xander’s eyebrows shot up. “Holy antecessors, so she can control any artifact that’s near her or something?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think she can only control relics of a similar make,” Strand said. “We didn’t have time to do any more testing.”

  “Thanks for telling me this. I thought you guys were just down here for a pick-and-grab job,” Xander said.

  “If the rest of my crew finds out I’ve told you, they’re gonna be pissed.”

  “Hey, you know me, I can keep a secret,” Xander said. “Only now your conspiracy theory is starting to make sense.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “These alien artifacts are the most valuable things in the entire galaxy,” Xander said. “If you’ve got someone in your crew who has the ability to control even just one of these things, it could change the balance of power.”

  Strand nodded. “You make a good point.”

  “I read up a lot about these artifacts and the published research papers on them,” Xander said. “Both sides keep saying they’re making progress in understanding the lost technologies of these things and all, but it’s just propaganda. Everyone is clueless on how to decipher or get any of those artifacts to work.”

  “And Maeve can do it on her own,” Strand said. “We’ve got to get her back.”

  “My contract is to return you to the Nepenthe, nothing more,” Xander said. “If you want my services again then we’ll have to make a new agreement.”

  “Come on, dude,” Strand said. “The contract stipulated you bring back the entire team, not just me.”

  “The contract stipulated that I’m within my rights to make an escape, with or without your team, if it goes wrong, and it has,” Xander said.

  “But you said yourself that Maeve is the most valuable person in the galaxy,” Strand said. “You want the parasites using her to take over everything?”

  “I’m a businessman, not a galactic hero,” Xander said. “I’ll get you out of this so you can report back to the Nepenthe. Once there, you and the others can decide on how to get her back.”

  “If you turn this thing around we can hover above the Concordance base and I’ll drop down and get her out,” Strand said.

  Xander shook his head. “You were a damned good operator back in VIPR, but even you in your prime would not get past the first squad of bio-warriors that are surely waiting for you if you’re dumb enough to try. Let’s come back here with another team and then get her out.”

  “They could transfer her outta here once the system-wide lockdown is over.”

  “If what you said is true about this girl, do you think the Union will just allow her to leave in a Concordance bio-ship?”

  Strand leaned back on the chair. He remembered the security bot correctly identifying Maeve and transmitting an alert, meaning the Union would already know she was on the planet. “You’re right. The system will remain in lockdown for quite some time. We’ve got a chance to—”

  Athena interrupted their conversation. “Alert. We’re approaching the security zone around the Union-controlled dark matter field.”

  “Switch us to full throttle, Athena,” Xander said. “You spot any slow ships nearby?”

  “Yes,” Athena said. “An automated courier drone is drifting two hundred thousand klicks away.”

  “Whoa, now this feels like an aphid job,” Xander said. “Okay, let’s try to get closer to it. Match course and heading.”

  The added g-force pushed Strand down on his seat. “You going to try and hack into it?”

  “No questions at this time, bud,” Xander said. “Let me work my magic without any distractions. Athena, sound off.”

  “I’ve detected minute heat readings coming from the Union defense grid,” Athena said. “High probability of lancer missiles firing.”

  “No lasers?” Xander asked.

  “At this range it would be impractical,” Athena said. “I doubt if the defense bases near the dark matter cloud have any gauss weapons either, since it would require plenty of maneuvering thrust to align the guns properly during a battle.”

  “Right you are,” Xander said. “Defense bases tend to have permanent orbits and are fully automated. Let’s see if we can trick ’em.”

  Twenty minutes passed as the Eon Shrike began a deceleration maneuver to align her hull with the drifting information probe. Xander continued to make minute adjustments while Athena plotted the most probable angles of attack from the incoming lancers. Strand merely watched in mute amazement. He still had a lot to learn from Xander.

  “Coming up on the drone courier,” Athena said. “New contacts at extreme lancer ranges detected.”

  “Give me the probable lancer
fire corridor grids,” Xander said. As each attack pattern showed up on his console, he continued to adjust the Eon Shrike’s position in order to use the courier drone as a shield.

  “Those lancers are pretty heavy,” Strand said. “You sure that drone ship is gonna block them all?”

  “Wait and see,” Xander said. “Athena?”

  “Tracking possible lancer detonations at one hundred thousand klicks,” Athena said. “Incoming fire grid updated, sugar.”

  Xander gritted his teeth as he pushed up the throttle again while tilting the control stick to the right. “Come on, baby, turn this butt sideways just a little bit more.”

  Athena giggled again. “I love it when you say these things, hon.”

  Strand closed his eyes while rubbing his temples. He sure has a unique way of getting rid of stress while in space combat, I’ll grant him that.

  “Estimated three minutes till impact from first salvo,” Athena said.

  “Here we go,” Xander said tersely.

  The semi-solid tungsten projectiles had been propelled by fission detonations, achieving a velocity of over eight hundred klicks per second. Despite being fired from nearly four hundred thousand klicks away, it took less than eight minutes for the ordinance to reach their intended target. Although the majority of the projectiles missed, at least three made direct impacts against the courier drone. The information probe never had a chance, and the hits tore it apart.

  Strand groaned as he heard something big colliding with the Eon Shrike’s outer hull. His left arm thrust sideways, instinctively reaching out for the helmet and emergency life support pack stored in a nearby cabinet. Thankfully the cockpit’s internal atmosphere remained intact, and he quickly withdrew his hand.

  Xander had already adjusted the vessel’s throttle, accelerating to six-gees the moment he sensed the impact and keeping a close watch on the damage control reports. The readouts indicated a piece from a lancer warhead had passed through the drone courier and impacted on the Eon Shrike’s fake outer hull, causing moderate damage, but not enough to penetrate into the critical areas.