Attacked Beneath Antarctica (Doc Vandal Adventures Book 3)

by Dave Robinson

  “More to the point, where's my wife?” Gus interrupted, pushing his way forward on his knuckles and getting in Shard's face as only a silverback gorilla can. “Did you send her to her death?”

  Shard shook its head. “No, she is still alive.”

  “Because of you, or despite you?” Ming snapped, her eyes flashing. “You're going to have to do better than that if you want us to fight this Not-It for you.”

  “More because than despite,” Shard admitted. “I changed the atmosphere down here to be less hazardous to your kind. You are also benefiting from it.”

  “That's not much of an argument for your side.” Ming tossed her head. “If we couldn't breathe the air down here safely we wouldn't be much good to you.”

  Dark green eyes flashed. “It doesn't matter,” Shard screamed silently. “Whether you help me or not I'm going to continue fighting Not-It because that is what I was created to do. If I fail, you or your descendants will all die or be turned into extensions of Not-It!”

  Shard rose up on its leg tentacles, barely meeting Ming's height, and drew its dignity around itself like a cloak. Just for a moment, Vic saw the load this creature had carried alone through the eons. “You can help or not help; I cannot force you and would not if I could. All I can do is tell you the truth and leave your decisions up to your consciences.

  “My purpose is to defend against Not-It. What is yours?”

  Vic grinned. This was reasoning she could understand whether it convinced Ming or not. “I'd rather die trying to save the world than live forever arguing about it.” She clapped Shard on the back. “We'll help you, we just want help getting Doc and Kehla back safe.”

  “If we move quickly, I may be able to restore your third.”

  “Gilly?” Gus frowned. “Is that the friend you mean?”

  Shard undulated her neck in a nodding gesture. “I believe so. Not-It has begun transforming him; should you be able to rescue your friends in time, I ought to be able to restore their humanity.”

  “What about Hansen and his crew?” Ming said quietly.

  Shard sighed silently in Vic's ears. She spread her arm tentacles wide. “I fear it is too late for them. They have been fully transformed and their humanity erased. Their lives may be saved, but there is no chance to return their original selves.”

  Vic braced her shoulders. “All right then, what do we do?”

  A German-accented voice spoke from behind her. “You die, Fräulein, you die.”

  #

  “Ah, there you are James.” Doc looked up from his desk to see Aldous Hansen walk into the classroom. “Concerned about your final exam? Don't be, there's only one answer that really matters.”

  The professor smiled and moved towards the blackboard. They were in one of the old classrooms in Ward Hall, and James Vandal was working on his doctorate at Arkham College. The patterns of sunlight on the wall told him it was early autumn, before most of the other students had arrived. Hansen was a major reason he had chosen Arkham, the professor's combined approach to geology and prehistory was fascinating. James had met his best friend in this class, a gorilla named Gus.

  Gus had made history walking out of East Africa after the War, but now he was just an omnivorous post-doctoral student soaking up all the knowledge he could. They were both planning to take up further studies in England the following year.

  Hansen rapped his pointer on the board, drawing James' attention back to the classroom. “You need to keep your mind in the here and now, James.”

  The classroom shivered around Doc for just a moment, the sunlight dancing across the far wall. Pressure built in his chest, and then faded away just as suddenly. He was in Professor Hansen's class in the summer of 1921 looking at a map of Europe and Asia.

  “Observe the threat of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia,” Professor Hansen began. “Left unchecked they will either split the world between them, or destroy it in internecine war. Meanwhile Mussolini's Italy is fighting in Africa and Japan seeks to control all of Asia.”

  Hansen gestured towards the Franco-German border. “To the west, the French Maginot Line will provide a tomb for more dead than Verdun. The air fleets of the next war will be tremendously destructive and all for nothing.”

  Nazi Germany? Soviet Russia? That couldn't be right, could it? Pain stabbed behind his eyes, making Doc drop his head to the cold desk. This was all wrong. He took a deep breath, cleansing his mind. The pain receded and he sat back up.

  Hansen was still at the blackboard, looking gaunt and thinner than he had just a moment before. He met James' eyes and gave a closed-mouth smile. “Britain and France are weak and failing fast; China is in disarray, and the United States turned inwards. Human civilization is doomed.”

  “So what can we do?” James fought the impulse to raise his hand before talking to the professor.

  “Well, we can exhaust ourselves in a fruitless struggle against an inexorable destiny,” Hansen said, “or we can take the opportunity to build a new and lasting civilization that will preserve the world.”

  “Preserve the world?” James shook his head, trying to make sense of what Hansen was saying. This wasn't in any of the lectures he remembered.

  Hansen's skin tightened on his face; his smile revealed misshapen teeth. “Yes, preserve the world. We have the rare opportunity to embrace a new Destiny, to become one with a force older than humanity, and turn this world from raw chaos to a new form of order.”

  The older man's eyes sparkled and the world began to fall away around them as Doc's mind fought the contradictions. There were no Nazis in 1921 and the Soviet Union didn't exist then either. He and Gus hadn't even met Vic. This was wrong, he was not in an Arkham College classroom. He was miles beneath the Antarctic ice cap.

  Doc focused his attention and tried to take another deep breath. The thick gas mixture fought his lungs, but he managed to draw it deep. Doc opened his eyes to see a thick sheet of curved glass. He was inside one of the cylinders. A shadow fell across his face and he looked up to see Hansen and his egg floating above the cylinder.

  “Struggle all you want, James. You cannot escape.” Hansen waved his good arm. “You had the chance to become more than you are, but you threw it away. Now all you can do is lie there as your humanity leaches away until you become one of Earth's true inheritors.”

  #

  “Then shoot her,” Shard's quiet reaction caught Vic by surprise. “If you want her to die so badly, use that weapon you are holding and shoot her in the back.”

  “Stupid beast!” The now-familiar voice of the heavy set German officer replied. “How about I shoot you instead.”

  “If you have the courage, do it.” Shard faced the German over Vic's shoulder.

  No bullet came, so Vic turned around to see how many Nazis they were up against, her submachine gun hanging from her shoulder. The Nazi officer smiled crookedly at her over a leveled K98k rifle, his gorilla and three soldiers behind him. The other two Nazis were nowhere to be seen.

  Vic smiled broadly, her arms at her side. She couldn't get to her submachine gun before he fired, but it didn't matter. He was hers. “Go ahead, shoot me. Just remember; if you don't kill me instantly with the first shot, I will kill you. We Russians have long memories.”

  The officer snarled and pulled the trigger.

  Vic's first thought was that time must have slowed as she watched the bullet leave the barrel, before it slowed down even further and fell to the ground at her feet.

  The German gorilla reached out and clouted the officer on the head. His eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped to the floor, his rifle clattering away into the darkness. The gorilla smiled and showed his empty hands, spread wide in a gesture of peace.

  “I didn't think it would work properly down here; just like shooting underwater.” He nodded towards Shard, and then glanced at each of the others. “So what's really going on? This isn't some secret Thule Society base far away from lesser minds. If it was, the Führer would already be ruling the
world.”

  Vic waved Shard forward. “It's your story.”

  “This is the last refuge of a space that was dead millions of years before either of your species was born. It is also the battlefield where the fate of the planet will be determined. Should the one you call Hansen win, this entire world will change to suit its kind. The luckiest of humanity will die, unable to survive in a physically changing world. The rest will waken as corrupt mirrors of this form I wear, dwelling in the cold darkness of an alien sea.

  “Your Thousand Year Reich will drown in less than a decade.”

  “It's not my Reich, I was sold into it,” The young gorilla growled. “Still, I do take your point. It is my planet.”

  “Where are the rest of you?” Gus asked, speaking for the first time since the Germans had arrived.

  “Dead, you three managed to kill the others before you fled.”

  “What are you doing, you stupid ape?” The German officer had woken up.

  “Trying to save your precious Reich.” Vic stood over the man, ready to kick him if he did anything to threaten her. “It's time you used that so-called “master race” brain of yours for something more useful than insults.

  “Now, you have a choice. You can either behave yourself and act like an adult, and I'll let you get up and take part in the discussion; or you can lie on the floor and writhe in pain while the rest of us get on with saving the world. It's up to you, I don't really care either way.”

  Vic stepped back, keeping a close eye on the German in case he did something unexpected. Fortunately, his reason seemed to have won out over his emotions, because he moved very slowly and deliberately, climbing to his feet and then facing the group.

  “I am Sturmbannführer Hans-Wilhelm Trott, Fräulein.” He gave an abbreviated Nazi salute and clicked his heels.

  “If we're being formal, it's Gräfin, not Fräulein.” Vic gave him an icy stare.

  “Very well, your ladyship.” He straightened his shoulders as he spoke, making Vic smile a little inside; it was always best to keep petty tyrants on their toes.

  “Now that we know whose is bigger, can we get on with it?” Ming asked, giving Vic a wink as she spoke. “There's got to be more to this than just walking up to Hansen and telling him to stop.”

  Shard nodded. “Hansen has merged with the being I call Not-It. Normally Not-It uses a host without a deep connection, but after the first fight with the Nazis it was weakened. It merged fully with Hansen, who now needs an artificial aid to survive. Separate Hansen from his conveyance and he will die, taking Not-It with him. Once Not-It is gone, I can join you and we can deal with its followers.”

  “So we basically go in and rip Hansen off his wheelchair? Is that the plan?” Vic raised an eyebrow. She wasn't the only one who looked skeptical. Both Gus and the other gorilla had similar expressions on their faces too. Ming's opinion wasn't written on her face like the others, but Vic knew her well enough to know she had her own doubts.

  “His conveyance has no wheels, but if I understand your language, that would be one way to put it.” Shard's arm tentacles undulated outwards in a shrugging gesture.

  “What about weapons?” Gus asked. “None of our guns will do much good in this pressure, so do you have anything we can use instead?”

  “No projectile weapons will do much good, and my energy weapons are long dead. I do have some blades, though I do not know how they would fit your hands.” Vic wasn't sure exactly what Shard meant by energy weapons, but if they were anything like guns she didn't really want them in the hands of the Nazis. Especially not Sturmbannführer Trott if he got behind her.

  Shard led the two groups down the tunnel to a small opening on the right. The chamber behind the opening was only about ten feet square, but it wasn't the size that caught Vic's attention. It was what was racked on the shelves that lined the walls.

  Blades, lots and lots of blades. Rather than conventional swords or daggers, these were saw-toothed crescent-shaped blades with two pairs of small grips along the back edge. Vic reached out and stroked one reverently. It felt like a cross between steel and stone, and for a moment Vic thought it felt almost alive under her fingertips. She smiled. “Mmmmm, I think I'm in love.”

  A grinning Ming smacked her hand. “Yes, you are, and don't you forget it.”

  Shard shook her head in that weird undulating fashion that Vic was already beginning to get used to. “Your appreciation is all well and good, but let me show you the problem.”

  Reaching out with all four arm tentacles, she slid the tips through the four holes in the nearest blade and then picked it up. “As you see, the grips are designed for tentacles like mine, I don't know if you humans could hold one properly.”

  “Just watch me.” Vic stroked the back of the nearest one, and then slipped two fingers through the first hole. Drawing it back towards her, she stretched her fingers apart in two pairs before grasping it firmly. It pulled on the side of her fingers, but after a few experimental swings she thought she could handle it. Although the material didn't look any different than the blade, it felt softer making it easier to grip than she'd expected.

  “If we have the time, I'd cut out the material between each pair of holes and make handholds that way. If not, I'm sure I can use one but I'm not sure about the others. Luckily, my hands are just the right size.” She gave the blade a quick spin and smiled cockily.

  “They'll never know what hit them.”

  Gus laughed. “That's all good for you, but none of the rest of us are going to be able to get our hands in one of those things except maybe Ming.”

  Ming reached for one but couldn't quite stretch her fingers far enough apart to get a good grip. “They aren't for me, either.”

  “The only other things I have are these.” Shard indicated a pile of rods leaning against one of the shelves. Looking like they were made of the same material as the blades, each rod was just over a yard long and about half an inch thick. “They may not be much, but at least you should be able to hold them.”

  “Go on Gus, give one a try,” Vic said; still spinning her blade. “It's better than nothing.”

  Ming was actually the first to reach for one. Wrapping her hand gingerly around the rod, she tried to lift it. The small woman grunted with effort, and then added the other hand. “Heavy?”

  With both hands around the rod, Ming was finally able to get it off the floor. No sooner had she got it moving, than she was struggling again; this time to stop it from rising.

  “That's odd,” Gus said. He grabbed one in his good hand and heaved it off the floor. A moment later, he was carrying it very carefully. “If it wasn't impossible, I'd say this masses more than it weighs. It's probably got a hundred or more pounds of inertia, but only weighs about ten pounds locally.”

  “What are you talking about?” Vic sighed, Gus was always going off in tangents. “Can you hit things with it or not?”

  Gus smiled. “If that's all you're worried about; you can stop worrying. It's going to be very good for hitting things. I just wish I understood why.”

  “It's a material native to my space,” Shard explained. “Not all of its mass responds to your planet's gravity even though it retains its full inertia. It affects the rods differently from the blades because of their geometry.”

  Gus just shook his head as he gave his rod a few test swings. “Amazing, I wish we had more time to talk about it.”

  “But we don't,” the other gorilla said. “If this is so important, we need to get moving.”

  “He's right.” Ming spun around using her rod as a cane and faced the Nazis. “Listen up! Once we get in there she's in charge. You do what she says, when she says it, and you don't stop to click your heels.”

  “You said once we get in there?” Trott interrupted as Ming drew a breath. “Does that mean...”

  Ming hobbled up to the slightly taller Nazi and shoved her face in his. “That means until then you do what I say if you know what's good for you.”

 
“Jawohl,” Trott replied, quailing before her gaze. “You two are in charge.”

  “Good.” Ming swung her gaze across the group of Germans. “Does anyone else have any questions?”

  Vic swallowed a giggle as even the other gorilla shook his head. The rest of the Nazis followed suit; apparently none of them were willing to risk Ming's wrath. Small she might be, but the woman was fierce.

  The only question was from Gus. “Now that we have weapons, where are they and what are we up against?”

  “To answer your second question: I don't know.” Shard shrugged more eloquently than any human could. “I know that you're up against Hansen, but I do not know how many others he has in his thrall. Nor do I know how many servitors he may have activated. What I do know is that you'll be outnumbered.”

  Vic hefted her weapon and smiled. “That's how I like it; it's always easier when I don't have to hunt for something to hit.”

  Ming patted her arm, and then turned her attention toward Shard. “Okay, so we don't know what; do we know where?”

  Shard nodded, her facial tentacles spread wide. “Yes, they're in the nearest brain chamber.”

  “Brain chamber?” The Nazi gorilla spoke up. “What do you mean by brain chamber?”

  “Your space is naturally inhospitable for my kind. It takes a lot of work and complex machinery to make even this small portion comfortable. Knowing Not-It was following, I created an artificial brain of crystal that could manage this machinery while I stayed ready to defend my followers.

  “As you can see from the results, it was not enough.” She sighed. “In the last battles of past eons, Not-It took the chamber from me and it is now its headquarters. That same chamber also contains the regeneration cocoons that Not-It uses to corrupt and transform its followers.”

  “So just walk in there and hit them? Is that the plan?” Vic bit back a laugh. “It doesn't sound that practical to me.”

  Ming looked at her and smirked. “True, if it were your plan it would be run, not walk.”

  “Do you know what Doc's plan was?” Gus interjected, using the rod like a pointer. “What were he and Kehla going to do?”