“That’s a damned big egg,” Sanchez said. “Which makes me wonder what kind of creature came out of it—and what laid it.”
Babcock interrupted. “The composition is a mix of calcium carbonate, phosphate and magnesium.”
“Same as chicken eggs?” Sanchez said with incredulity in his voice.
“The very same,” Babcock added. “Although there are some interesting proteins here. Can you get some more samples? I can get Squid Two to do a more thorough analysis back on the Intrepid.”
“Your wish is my command,” Mach said sarcastically. “Any other special requests?”
“Some of the bones would be useful,” the scientist added, not responding to Mach’s sarcasm. The two men had long worked with each other and were used to the banter. It was the one thing Mach was most thankful for with his crew: the banter and jibes kept things light when they were surrounded by darkness.
“You want me to grab some samples?” Sanchez said.
“No, it’s okay. You stay there covering me. You’re the better shot anyway.” Mach didn’t want to admit that he worried about his friend’s capability. Though he was showing no obvious signs of illness, he didn’t want to risk it, and as for being a better shot, that much was true—much to Mach’s chagrin. He’d lost a fortune to Sanchez over the years in shooting matches.
Mach placed the small fragment into a pouch around his waist and stepped closer to the pile. He looked around for a more intact piece of shell, hoping to find one with some biometric data inside. As he stepped closer, his foot crunched down on a fibula, snapping it in two like a dried twig.
He paused, his muscles tensing, anticipating something, anything, but there was only silence.
“Keep going,” Sanchez said. “I’ve got things covered.”
Mach inspected the pile and noticed an egg that looked almost perfect on a ledge of bones about three meters tall. He could easily reach it with a short burst of his suit’s thrusters. He prepared to launch himself up, but a mini landslide of bones fell down, covering his boots.
Instinctively, he kicked them away, but something had grabbed onto his boot. Poking out of the pile, he noticed an arm wearing a fragment of a uniform similar to the ones the people in the facility were wearing.
“Oh crap,” Sanchez said. “This ain’t good. Back up, Mach. Now!”
“What?” He looked down at his boot and saw one of the little bugs that had attacked him before in the facility trying to get through the material. He whacked it away with the barrel of his gun before stamping on it with a wet squelching crunch.
Bones continued to shower down from the top of the pile, spinning and bouncing before crashing into puffs of dust as they struck the hard ground. Mach stepped back and then saw what had alarmed Sanchez.
There were thousands of them… perhaps millions. An army of bugs crawled out from beneath the bones, a tide of oil covering everything as it drew nearer. Mach fired his Stinger twice at the ocean of bugs, more in reaction than in any hope of stemming the tide.
“Time to leave,” Mach said as he turned his back and started to sprint back to the elevator car.
Sanchez pulled a grenade from his belt and threw it into the pile. A few seconds later a flash of fire shot up in a roiling column.
The damned bugs screamed, sending a high-pitched wail through Mach’s speakers. The chattering of their hardened legs against dry bones and rock soon drowned the sound out.
“What the hell’s happening down there?” Tulula said from the Intrepid.
“Ditto that,” Adira added.
“A tactical retreat,” Sanchez said. “Bugs, everywhere…”
Mach and Sanchez continued to run for the open, waiting elevator. A couple of the bugs managed to get onto Sanchez’s back, probably blown there by the grenade that continued to burn. Mach was glad that he couldn’t smell the burning.
“Hold up a sec,” Mach said as he reached out for Sanchez’s back. “You’ve got some passengers trying to eat through your suit.”
Sanchez halted and tried to reach behind him, but Mach was already there, scraping his gloved hand across his friend’s back to clear the insistent bugs. Their sharp teeth and venom had managed to make a number of holes through Sanchez’s suit.
“Okay, go,” Mach said, pushing his friend forward. He took a look over his shoulder and saw that the writhing mass of critters was just a few meters away now. Mach turned and ran, catching up with Sanchez, who seemed to be slowing.
Both men crashed into the elevator car. Mach managed to spin round and close the door just as the heaving mass of insects slammed against the glass, their pincers and yellow venom squirting all over the surface.
“Shit, they’re going to get through,” Sanchez said between heavy breaths as he reached out and slammed the button to send the car climbing up the elevator cable.
“Babcock, can you speed this motor up? We’ve got a problem on our hands.”
“Working on it,” Babcock said.
“Be quick,” Sanchez added.
Small cracks appeared at the bottom left corner of the glass door. A horrible scratching, scraping noise came from the bugs’ singular desire to breach the barrier and get a meaty snack. Mach stood uselessly, watching as more of the cracks stretched their way up the yellow-stained surface. There must have been at least a hundred or so of the bugs clinging to the surface, their pincers scratching against the glass.
“Anyone would think these things hadn’t been fed,” Sanchez said. “Given the pile down there, you’d think they would have had enough food for a lifetime.”
The elevator jolted and increased the speed at which it ascended out of the quarry. The velocity seemed to infuriate the bugs further as they attacked with a renewed vigor. The glass door creaked as yet more cracks appeared; they were longer this time, going from the bottom all the way to the top of the door.
“I don’t think it was these things that ate the meat off all those bones,” Mach said. “Which, of course, raises the question: what did? Oh, and while we’re stuck in here waiting to be attacked by these goddamned things, you want to tell me what’s going on with you?”
“We’ve got other pressing matters, don’t you think?” Sanchez replied, bringing his rifle around to aim at the door. For a brief moment, Mach thought he was going to pull the trigger, which gave him an idea.
“When I say kick the door hinge, you kick it,” Mach said. They were only about fifty meters from the top of the quarry. If the door did manage to hold out until then, he didn’t want to take hundreds of bugs with them up to the surface.
“What are you doing?” Sanchez said. “I don’t like that look on your face. It’s your stupid face—which you always have when you’re going to do something stupid.”
Mach smiled and reached out for the door handle on the left-hand side. “Ready…”
“Wait, what are you—”
Mach flung the door open. Half of the bugs failed to cling to the surface and fell away into the pit below. “Now!” Mach said.
Sanchez caught on and started ramming his boot into the single hinge located halfway up the right side of the door. Each strike dented the metal tube, shaking loose a few more of the bugs.
One more final kick and the hinge broke, sending the door falling away to the ground, taking with it the bugs. A single critter had clung to the bottom edge and crawled its way into the elevator car.
Mach and Sanchez looked at each other. Mach stepped back and swept his hand in front of him. “Be my guest,” he said.
Sanchez grinned as he raised his boot and squashed the damn thing with a stomp that reverberated throughout the elevator. “That was satisfying,” the hunter said.
Mach switched off the comlink to the facility and hit the emergency stop button on the elevator, leaving them hanging some twenty meters over the quarry, with no door. The wind whipped inside and blustered against their suits. Icy fog rolled in, clinging to their limbs.
“Mach?” Sanchez said, raising an eyebr
ow. “What are you doing?”
Mach stood between Sanchez and the controls and said, “We’re going nowhere until you tell me what’s wrong. And this is not an order to a crew member; this is me, your old friend, demanding you be honest with him.”
“Damn you, Mach, why do you have to be such an insistent ass?”
“Why do you have to hide things from me?”
“Sure, like I’m the only one. You really think I believe this is just an F&R mission? We’re being paid way too much for that. That stinks of danger money to me. What exactly are we doing here?”
“I can’t tell you that… not yet.”
“So trust only goes one way, is that it?” Sanchez said, turning away from Mach and taking a deep breath. Mach could tell it wasn’t exasperation, but fatigue. The way his shoulders hunched and his chest heaved were unmistakable.
“I can see it in you,” Mach said. “Ever since the Ripper job I knew something was up. You’re not old enough to be this out of shape. Hell, you were the fittest human I’ve ever known.”
Sanchez turned back to him. “Things change.”
“Like how?”
“Like life turns into death.”
Chapter 9
Mach stood there in the elevator, staring at his friend. “You’re dying?”
“Well, we all are, aren’t we? Immortal life hasn’t been discovered just yet,” Sanchez said, rubbing a hand across his shoulder, massaging the muscle as he grimaced. “Look, this isn’t the time for this.”
It was clear to Mach that his friend was suffering, and it hurt him knowing he couldn’t help. He knew Sanchez was as stubborn as anyone, and if he kept pushing him, Sanchez would just dig in further.
“You really can’t tell me what’s going on?” Mach said, trying to appeal to him once more. “You’ve told Tulula, I know that much.”
“Spying on the crew?” Sanchez said, leaning against the back of the elevator.
Mach shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head. “The team is my responsibility. You know how I work. Which makes me think that your little conversation with Tulula in the mess was just as much for my benefit as hers. I saw you looking into the camera.”
“I guess you can use that as your way of feeling better about yourself for spying on us, if you like.”
Sanchez hadn’t disputed it, giving Mach the confirmation that he was trying to communicate with Mach in an obscure way. But why not just come out with it?
“You’re scared, aren’t you?” Mach said, stepping closer to his friend and placing a hand on the other’s shoulder. “I can’t help you if you keep this hidden from me.”
Sanchez shut his eyes and took a deep breath. The elevator car jolted and ascended the wire cable. Mach and Sanchez grabbed onto each other as the car swayed back and forth.
“Babcock,” Sanchez said, “must have overridden the—”
A crackling voice came through an embedded speaker in the ceiling of the car. Babcock’s voice warbled, “Mach, Sanchez, are you two okay? I saw the elevator had stopped and got it working again, but I got no communications from the comlink. Do you hear me?”
Mach gritted his teeth. “I hear you, Babcock. We’re both fine. You did well. We’ll rendezvous with you in a few minutes.” He tried to hide his irritation. He was so close to getting to the truth. Now Sanchez stood with his arms crossed, staring out into the dark of the night, his face inscrutable, brooding.
“You will tell me in time,” Mach said. “If not because we’re friends, but because I’m your captain and employer, and I can’t risk this mission if you’re not able to perform to the best of your abilities. Do you understand me?”
“Tell me something,” Sanchez said as the elevator stopped and the rear doors slid open, leading to a path back into the facility. “What is on Voyager? You don’t think I’m stupid enough to believe we’re just rescuing a bunch of miners, do you? These kinds of ships go missing all the time—hazard of the job.”
Mach ignored him and stepped out onto the rocky path. He headed through dense frozen fog and the blustering ice crystals toward the large door into the facility. Sanchez kept pace, matching him step for step.
“It’s bad, ain’t it?” Sanchez said as the two men stopped in front of the door.
“Yeah,” Mach added. “It’s bad, real fucking bad.”
The two men didn’t speak after that. They joined Adira, Babcock and Squid Two in the main control center of the mining facility. Babcock was sitting at a console, the holographic radar screen floating in front of him. A single blue line arced back and forth across the circular, three-dimensional display.
Adira stood in the dark recess of the room, stretching her back by arching backwards until her hands and feet were both touching the floor, forming a perfect lowercase n shape. Although upside down, she faced him and gave him a smile and a wink before easing herself upright and turning to face him. She sighed with pleasure as she leaned forward to grasp her ankles. She straightened once more and stepped toward Mach. She pulled a hunting knife from her belt and thrust forward suddenly.
Mach twisted away, his mouth open in surprise, wondering where the attack had come from, when she backed away and lifted the knife up between them. A bug stuck on the end, it’s legs wiggling frantically, venom dripping to the floor of the facility.
“I didn’t think it was protocol to bring along passengers,” Adira said with a smile.
“I thought you were…” Mach said, then just laughed and shook his head.
“Kill you?” Adira said. “Oh, darling, if I were to do that, you wouldn’t see it coming. And I wouldn’t miss.”
“That’s… good to know.”
Sanchez grumbled something and joined Babcock. Mach and Adira followed until they were all standing around the scientist. Above the radar, Squid Two hovered, inspecting the readings.
“There’s nothing,” Babcock said. “The planet is barren. The only concentration of metals I can find is the facility itself”—he pointed to a red dot on the holographic sphere—“and, of course, the Intrepid and its drone.” Both were likewise indicated by two small red dots.
“Given the size of Voyager, it should be easy to spot, right?” Adira said.
“Indeed,” Squid Two replied with its chirping little voice. “It would be the biggest concentration of metal on this awful rock.”
“Then it’s safe to say it’s not here,” Sanchez said. “And we’ve wasted all this damned time for nothing when we could have just wiped the data and left.” He slammed a fist onto the console, making the holographic radar blink twice before reforming its shape.
Mach’s comlink chirped twice, indicating a message from the Intrepid. “Channel open,” he said, speaking into his HUD’s control system. Lassea’s face appeared on the inside of his visor. “What it is, Lass?” he asked.
“Sir, Tulula and I have discovered a radio signal.”
“What kind of signal?” Mach routed the conversation through the general comlink channel so the whole crew could communicate.
“Here, I’ll play it,” the junior pilot said.
A series of bleeps and chirps came through the channel.
“That’s an emergency beacon signal,” Babcock said. “I used to listen to hundreds of those during my time back on Minerva. There’s a kind of music to them after a while.” The old scientist smiled fondly. Squid Two’s chirps synchronized with the signal as if singing a melody with it.
“What does it communicate?” Adira said.
“It’s a binary pulse message,” Tulula said.
“She’s right,” Babcock added. “It’s a shortwave signal with an unencrypted message giving the ship number and Salus Sphere registration code.”
Babcock raised his left arm and gestured with agile fingers across the smart-screen, entering the binary notation from the signal. He sent the numbers to Mach’s smart-screen.
“That’s them,” he said. “That’s the registration number of Voyager. Ladies, do we have a location?”
“We’ve triangulated it to the northern hemisphere of Noven Alpha,” Tulula said, a slight tremble of excitement in her voice. Since she had joined the crew, she hadn’t had much chance to show off her skills beyond making sure the experimental vestan engine in the Intrepid was running optimally.
Given the humans and fidesians of the CW were at war with her species and the horans during the Century War, it had taken her a while to grow to trust the crew and feel like she was an important part of the team. Mach was pleased that she along with Lassea had found the signal. It would only help to integrate her with the crew.
“Keep a lock on the signal and program the coordinates into the flight nav,” Mach said.
“Already on it, sir.” Lassea gave him a salute.
“Prepare for takeoff. We’ll be with you shortly.”
Mach switched off the comlink and addressed the others. “Time to go. We move now on the double. No stopping for anything, understood? We get back to the Intrepid and get off this godforsaken rock right now. I’ll take point. Adira, you take the rear. Let’s move.”
Babcock stood and his little drone hovered over his shoulder. “About the shell,” he enquired.
“You can work on it during the journey to Alpha,” Mach said. “Don’t worry, I have the sample with me.”
Mach had decided to switch off the facility’s power, feeling like the people who had hid here did it for a perfectly good reason and he saw no other reason to do otherwise. He led his team back to the Intrepid and boarded just as Tulula fired up the engines and prepped for a quick burst over to Alpha. It would take approximately a day to get there. That would give plenty of time for Babcock to run his experiments.
And plenty of time for Mach to figure out how he was going to tell his crew the truth about the mission. He couldn’t delay it any longer. If Voyager were on Alpha, they would need to know. He couldn’t expect them to potentially sacrifice their lives for the safety of the Salus Sphere without knowing what it was they were trying to find—and ultimately destroy.
The Lost Voyager: A Carson March Space Opera Page 7
