Jasper stepped back. “No. I just saved your life.”
Johnny stepped forward with a clenched fist. “How you figure?”
Jasper pointed at his hip. “That weapon would have been strapped to your person when it went off had you taken it out on a spacewalk. And if you hadn’t noticed, you’ve been out there a lot lately.”
Mace stepped between them. “OK. We don’t need any killings here today. Jasper, please don’t pull any more stunts like that. I know you intended its recovery, but it was a little much. And Johnny, regardless of how it came about, he’s right. That thing would have gone off and cut you in half on your first spacewalk. He did save your life.”
Jasper said, “I admit I might have gone too far. Sorry, it was an impulsive thing to do. Even if funny and worth it. And if you’d like, I’ll have my engineers look over the thermal circuits for you. They may even be able to slim it down. If so, we could put it in production for you as well.”
Johnny took in a long deep breath as he ratcheted down his irritated mood. “Fine, I’ll take your offer.”
Johnny rested his clenched fists on his hips. “I do have a backup for that pistol. I’ll just have to keep it out of the cold.”
Mace stepped back from between them. “And we’ll take your offer of the fifty-fifty split, which means we need to get our butts back out there to scrounge up some minerals. We have a world to rebuild.”
Jasper said, “While you’re out there… the Zinka like gold. If you come across any, they will be more than happy to trade. And the Dellus are like that with emeralds and rubies.”
Mace replied, “All of those should be getting logged. I’ll pass you the data and you can direct your teams to harvest the most valuable first.”
Johnny winced. “I guess this means we need to give the crew the bad news—we’re going back out.”
Mace gestured toward the doorway leading off the catwalk. “After you.”
The next planet on the list was HD 7449 in the constellation Cetus. The second of its six planets sat in the middle of the habitable zone. As the Rogers approached, the sensors showed a blue-green planet with a reasonably thick atmosphere.
“Now, that looks a lot like Earth,” said Johnny.
Humphrey replied, “Atmosphere is slightly thicker. A nitrogen-oxygen mix similar to Earth. Temperatures at the equator show twenty-four to forty degrees C. Polar temps are showing minus thirty to minus ten C. Very much Earth-like, Mr. Hardy.”
Mace nodded. “Take us down, Mr. Hobbs. Let’s see what we have.”
Unlike Earth, the surface was made up of 60 percent land mass. Large continents were surrounded by deep but narrow, seas. Wispy clouds in one area transformed into violent thunderstorms in another. The continents were green with growth that turned a slight brown at the equators and flowed white with snow and ice in the polar regions.
Humphrey said, “A 27.5-hour day. Two moons, smaller than Earth’s. And a four hundred fifty day year. From every indication, we could easily live down there.”
“Let’s get our scans running. We have another twelve targets for our shift today.”
As the data began to stream in, Humphrey turned. “Mr. Hardy, we have something unusual here.”
An image from the surface was pushed to the main display wall. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but does that look like the remains of a city? The overgrowth covers it, but the LIDAR image shows structures.”
“Mr. Hobbs, take us in closer.”
The Rogers dropped to within a few hundred meters of a coastal jungle.
Johnny pointed. “There. You can see a long wall. Good eye, Mr. Mallot.”
Humphrey replied, “I don’t normally look at the LIDAR images. Not sure why I chose to today.”
“You said the air is breathable?” asked Mace.
Humphrey nodded. “Yes. Temperature is moderate at thirty-two degrees C. Humidity is high at close to 78 percent.”
Mace turned. “Johnny? Up for a walk?”
“Absolutely. Anything that gets me out of this chair.”
Jordan Crawford was summoned to the bridge to take over. The ramp was lowered. Mace and Johnny, accompanied by Bontu Montak and Fatso Geerok, stepped out onto a grassy knoll on the planet’s surface.
Mace flipped open his faceshield. “Hmm. You can smell that ocean.”
Johnny followed suit. “Yep. Has that salty smell.”
Bontu said, “Thank you for allowing me to come, Mr. Hardy.”
Mace said, “You and your people are always hard workers. I thought you could use the break. And if everything checks out, we’ll let everyone rotate out here to poke around. I know duty on the ship can be monotonous. Things like this at least add some small reward to our sacrifices.”
Geerok said, “I appreciate your efforts here as well.”
Fatso Geerok took a step, his right boot mushing into a soft spot on the ground.
Then the former Mawga admiral lifted his boot.
“What is it?” asked Johnny.
“It would appear to be some kind of animal dung.”
Johnny busted out laughing. “Too funny. We travel across the cosmos only to step in a pile. Sorry, Mr. Geerok, but I’m glad it was you and not me.”
In an attempt to clear the matter from his boot, Fatso Geerok flipped his foot, launching a small sample of the surprise five feet to where it stuck to the side of Johnny’s battlesuit leg.
“What the…”
Mace stepped up. “OK, let’s not turn into a bunch of monkeys throwing feces. Our time is still precious here. Johnny, go with Bontu. Poke around, see what you can find. Mr. Geerok, you’ll come with me.”
As they walked, Geerok said, “That mishap back there was unintentional.”
Mace laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Nobody was hurt and Johnny had it coming. The sonic wash will take care of it when we get back aboard. Let’s follow that low wall over there and see where it goes.”
“Do we know how long this has been here?”
Mace opened a comm. “Mr., Mallot. You have any estimates as to how long these ruins have been around?”
Humphrey replied, “Carbon dating places the city itself at twenty-one hundred years. It would appear at least twelve hundred years has passed since its demise. I ran several overgrowth simulations and they all showed the same twelve hundred year estimate.”
Mace nodded. “Any indicators that tell us what might have happened?”
Humphrey shook his head. “We don’t have enough information, Mr. Hardy. Although I think we can rule out tsunami. There are a number of walls that run parallel to the coastline. Had a large wave or series of waves come in, those would have been knocked over.”
Mace walked with Geerok for close to a kilometer. “Doesn’t look like much to see.”
Geerok replied, “What do the scans say of underground?”
Mace stopped, pulling a holo-display up over his arm pad. “Something surviving underground would make sense. Johnny, head to your left about two hundred meters. Looks like an underground building there. We’ll meet you there.”
“Got it. See you in ten.”
Geerok struggled to move about the stone blocks that made up the rubble. “Curse these stubby Mawga legs. You Humans have such an advantage.”
“Try turning your exosuit up a couple notches. Should make it easy to hop up and over any obstacles.”
Geerok made the adjustment. “If you had not already gathered, Mr. Hardy, I do not have the best of coordination. I’m old and I don’t move about much.”
Mace smiled. “Maybe I need to get you out more then.”
Geerok sighed. “Every now and again is more than enough, thank you.”
The four explorers converged on their target, imaginations running wild. Upon arrival, no door or entranceway could be found.
Chapter 20
*
Mace again pulled up an image on his holo-display. “We have the hollowed-out foundation of a building leading this way. Any door that w
ould have been here must be buried.”
Johnny pulled his newest thunder pistol and said, “Step back. I’ll see if I can dig us a hole.”
The others moved back to a safe distance. Faceshields were closed. Johnny raised his pistol, firing the first of a dozen concussion rounds into the ground in front of him. On the last shot, a five-meter-wide hole opened to a room below.
Johnny turned. “We’re in. Might give it five minutes for the dust to settle.”
As the others approached, the roof over the space below collapsed, taking Johnny with it. A ten meter fall had the nearly three hundred pound Human lying on a pile of rubble.
Mace yelled down: “You OK?”
Johnny waved. “Just a bruised ego.”
The others, upping the response of their battlesuit-exosuit parameters, jumped down into the open room.
Johnny pointed toward a corner. “Steps going up over there.”
Mace held out a hand, helping his friend to his feet. “Paintings and posters on the wall. Those are definitely ads. This all looks like something you’d find on Earth.”
Bontu called from an open doorway. “There are tunnels in here. I would guess it’s from a transportation system. The tunnel is smooth bore. Possibly maglev?”
Mace looked in. “There are settling marks here. And this deck isn’t all that long.”
Johnny said, “Multiple small train cars?”
Mace nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Bontu said, “Over here. I believe this is where they came in from. The room we came through was an exit to above.”
Johnny walked over. “Wow. Looks like a shopping mall. That’s a restaurant. This is spooky.”
“The counter heights suggest a species similar in stature to the Mawga,” said Geerok.
Bontu motioned to them. “Over here. I have an image. They are gray like us, with very sunken eyes, two nostrils where a nose or snout would be. And almost knuckle-draggers.”
Johnny laughed. “Knuckle-draggers?”
Bontu pointed. “Long arms, or a short torso. And three fingers on their hands.”
Johnny chuckled. “Great, cartoon characters.”
Bontu replied, “What?”
“Our cartoon characters on Earth only had three fingers, for whatever reason. Maybe those artists were abducted by the three-fingered knuckle-draggers from this planet. I’m almost wishing Jasper was here just so I could listen to his comments.”
Mace poked his head in the door of a store. “Clothing. And if we go by this store alone, they liked red.”
Johnny stopped at another doorway. “Ever seen a three-toed shoe?”
Mace said, “There are definite differences, but these people remind me of us—the old us I mean.”
The mall went on for almost a kilometer before a collapsed section brought the investigation to an end.
Mace stared at the rubble. “Not getting through there.”
A comm came in from Humphrey: “Mr. Hardy, we’re seeing movement in the jungle outside the ruins. Something is heading this way.”
“What do you mean, something?”
“Something big. Sensors won’t give me a clear image. I would advise you to come back up. We’ll move over and drop the ramp for you.”
Mace nodded. “We have a kilometer to cover. How close is it?”
Humphrey shook his head. “You leave now and run, and you might have a shot.”
Mace said, “Move into position for a pick-up, and if something hostile comes your way, start blasting it.”
Humphrey replied, “I’ll have to move stations. Remember, Mr. Mueller didn’t come with us.”
Mace frowned. “OK. We’re on our way. Alert Mr. Crawford to what we have going on.”
Mace turned to the others. “You all heard that. Something is coming through the jungle. Let’s get to the opening for a pick-up.”
The group moved into a run. At the halfway point, something skittered from a store on one side of the mall to the other.
Mace yelled as they passed: “Keep running!”
Just as they reached the doorways back to the train tunnel. A six-legged beast resembling a large black spider moved into their path. Johnny pulled his pistol, blasting the small beast and sending it hard against the far tunnel wall.
As Johnny turned the corner, a dozen such threats were standing in wait. Unlike arachnids, the creature had six legs and a body about half a meter in diameter. A fanged snout stuck out on a long thin neck. Four beady eyes sat atop protrusions on the upper side of its torso. Within seconds, the dozen grew into more than a hundred. The doorway out to the opening with the stairs was almost completely blocked.
Mace said, “Mr. Humphrey. Give me some status…”
The comm was silent.
Johnny said, “You want me to make a hole through there, I will. I’ve got this pistol dialed all the way up.”
Mace held up a hand. “Give me a second to get status from the ship. Geerok, since you’re still out of their sight, scout one of those stores. We may need a place to retreat. In the meantime, the rest of us… if they don’t move, we don’t move.”
Mace again commed the ship. “This is Hardy. Can anyone answer me?”
Jordan Crawford replied, “We’re pinned down. There must be a million of those things outside. Several thousand started up the ramp before we could raise it. The ship is crawling with them.”
Mace asked, “Anyone fought with them?”
Jordan nodded. “I hit a half dozen with a blaster before they forced me in here.”
“Where is here?”
“Food storage. At least it’s safe.”
“Where’s everyone else?”
Jordan shrugged. “I can only guess they have everyone cornered. Bio sensors show everyone as alive. Problem for me is I can’t open this door. Hallway camera shows it as crammed full of them.”
Geerok came up from behind. “Two doors down on the right—it’s a hallway that goes back to some offices. If they make it through we have about forty meters of hallway to defend. The door to the main mall is metal.”
“Make your way back,” said Mace. “Check it and prepare for us to come your way. Signal Mr. Montak when you’re ready for us.”
Geerok moved quietly away. Twenty seconds of standoff continued before Bontu Montak began taking steps backward. As he reached the door with Geerok, he signaled for the next to come.
Mace said, “Move back slowly. Signal me when you’re there.”
Johnny shook his head. “Not moving until you move. And don’t try to argue with me.”
“OK then. We go together on three.”
Johnny nodded. “Deal.”
“One…”
The spiders charged.
Mace fired his plasma rifle as he turned to run.
“Three! Three!”
Johnny stumbled back as repeated rounds left his thunder pistol. Tens of the spider beasts splattered to pieces as he turned to run. Mace spun, firing at the horde rounding the corner as Johnny took big steps. Before he reached his destination, three of the black menaces latched onto his right leg, throwing him off balance and to the side of the door. Mace reached out for his hand but was pulled back by Geerok as the horde overtook a struggling Johnny. Repeated blasts from the concussion weapon could be heard as the metal door to the hall was pulled closed.
Mace turned an angered face. “Open it!”
Geerok replied, “Too late. You open that door and we’re all dead.”
Johnny came over the comm. “Little suckers are strong. This suit won’t even move ‘em. Crap. They’re pulling at my arm pad.”
Johnny’s comm went silent. His thunder pistol continued to expel death for most of a minute before falling silent. Mace leaned the forehead of his helmet against the door.
Humphrey Mallot finally replied over the comm: “Mr. Hardy, they have me trapped in a closet. I talked with Jordan and I think we have a way to take the ship back.”
“Tel
l me.”
Humphrey passed an image over the comm. “That’s the ship gravity level. We reverse it and they’ll lose traction and fly to the ceiling. Might give us enough of an edge to mount an escape.”
Mace shook his head. “Where is it you think you’re going?”
“Out of this closet at least.”
Geerok said, “Perhaps they can fully solve the issue with use of the gravity generators.”
“How so?”
Geerok moved his hand up and down. “Turn the gravity off and they float. Flip it on full and they fall to the deck. If timed properly this could be used as a weapon.”
Mace half smiled. “Mr. Mallot, broadcast to everyone to set the gravity on their boots to full. After that, do just what Mr. Geerok here suggests. Flip the gravity full on then off as many times as it takes to scramble the brains of your attackers.”
“I can do that one better, Mr. Hardy. The settings allow for plus or minus ten gees of pull. If I go rail to rail repeatedly I can slam them into the ceiling, followed by the deck, over and over.”
“Make it happen, Mr. Mallot. We’ve lost Johnny. The rest of us are holed up in a hallway, although I don’t know for how long.”
Humphrey sent the word. The gravity rails were enabled and the artificial gees of the ship manipulated. Thousands of the black creatures were slammed to the ceiling and then reversed down to the floor and then back up again. Humphrey manipulated a dial, making the changes from one to another almost instantaneous. In less than a minute, the creatures that had invaded the Rogers were no longer moving.
Jordan and the others emerged from their hiding places with their plasma rifles drawn and started disposing of the injured invaders.
Ten minutes later, Jordan Crawford opened a comm: “The menace is gone.”
Mace replied, “Good, now focus your efforts on getting us out of here.
Jordan nodded. “Give us a few minutes to organize.”
“Take your time. We’re having a party down here.”
Bontu had his ear to the door. “I don’t hear them anymore, Mr. Hardy. I believe they left.”
Mace reached for the door handle.
Geerok grabbed his hand. “You sure you want to do that?”
Mace nodded. “I’m sure.”
HADRON Resurgent Page 19
