by Korza, Jay
Every one followed the three into the room with the slumbering giant. His hands were tied in plassteel cords that even he couldn’t break. Or at least that’s what they all hoped.
Daria pulled a reversal drug from her pouch and injected it in small amounts until the alien began coming around.
“Mumfra da jutida aht inop kuj! Tur mak goy rhe nas op inja”, he spat.
Everyone looked at Bloom. “Like I’m supposed to understand that.”
“Mumfra da jutida aht inop kuj! Tur mak goy rhe nas op inja”, the alien said again.
“It sounds almost like Detrill but not exactly. Maybe even a little Nortes, too. Put the two together along with a bag of marbles in your mouth, and you have whatever this guy is speaking”, Bloom said thoughtfully.
“Can you understand it or not?” Wilks was obviously getting frustrated.
“Look, Sarge, he could be telling me his name, rank, and serial number for all I know. Hell, the way he’s looking at me he might be telling me that my eyes are beautiful. Maybe even asking me out on a date.” That got a small slap in the back of the head from Wilks as a response. “Hey, don’t get jealous. You know you’re still the only one for me”, Bloom said defensively. This got an even harder slap from Wilks.
“C’mon, boys. Let’s stay professional here.” Emily knew that it was just male bonding but she didn’t feel that she had the time for it just now. She pulled her pistol out of its holster and put it to the alien’s head. “If we can’t understand him, he’s just a liability. We can’t take him with us so we’ll just have to kill him.” She shrugged towards Daria, who was standing shell shocked, looking at Emily. Apparently everyone else was surprised as well at their lieutenant’s sudden change of character. They couldn’t tell whether she was bluffing or not. All except Fang, of course, who stood there smiling, waiting to see blue blood and whatever color brain spread out on the floor before him.
The alien just laughed. “You bastard”, Bloom said. “You understand everything we’re saying.” He grabbed him by the back of the head and chin; he pulled back the alien’s head. “You better start talkin’ English, buddy, or she’ll do it.” He pointed towards Emily.
“Go ahead, you slugs”, the alien said with disgust. “If you don’t kill me, my commander will for failing him. My life is already over. End it now or leave me to die. It makes no difference.” Another laugh sounded but was cut short.
His head split open as a hollow point round burst through his skull. Emily looked at her weapon. She hadn’t pulled the trigger—what happened? Everyone looked at Wilks, who had his weapon still pointed at the now destroyed head. “That was for Snyder, you piece of shit.”
Fang looked closer; the brain was actually a darker shade blue than the blood. It looked good on the floor, though. Blood for blood, as it should be.
“Now let’s open this treasure chest and see what we’ve got.” Wilks looked at Emily. “Unless the lieutenant has something else in mind.”
“No, I think you’re right. Bloom, let’s see if you can get that lift to work.”
“Am I gettin’ overtime for this or what? Bloom this and Bloom that. What’s he saying, Bloom? Open this door and find out if it’s booby-trapped, Bloom.” He looked at Emily’s non-smiling face. “Sorry, Lieutenant, just trying to get a laugh. It’s good for you to laugh in the face of danger. Don’t you think?” he added meekly.
With a single finger, she pointed towards the lift. The two walked over together as Wilks laid out a new formation plan to the rest of the team. On the floor near the assembled soldiers, Snyder’s red blood began mixing with the blue blood of one of his killers. No one noticed what happened next as the two fluids intertwined. This was unfortunate.
Chapter 20
The Vanguard - Deep Inside Enemy Territory
Seth and Surgeon stood on the bridge as the ship prepared to land on an asteroid that was within their target system. The rock was almost the size of Earth’s only natural satellite. This would be the fifth sensor array they had deployed. Seth was hopeful that any one of the other four would start sending back useful information. So far the sensors hadn’t picked up any intelligence concerning their enemy.
“Touch down on my mark”, the helmsman said to the bridge crew. “Firing landing thrusters now. Three, two, one, mark. Planetfall complete, sir.”
“All stations reporting condition green”, the officer at the conn station reported. “Landing pistons have been deployed. We are reading all-stop and are anchored in.”
The captain thumbed his chair’s comlink. “General, we have completed the landing cycle at the coordinates you requested.”
“Thank you for the ride, Captain. We are almost ready to deploy our first sensor array”, the general’s voice came back over the speaker.
“I will be in my ready room if you need me.” The captain turned to the two commandos still standing on his bridge. “Don’t you two have a job to do? I don’t care to be a sitting duck any longer than necessary.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” the two men said in unison as they came to attention. They performed an about-face and entered the lift. Surgeon pushed the button for the main cargo bay. Seth looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“You can’t blame the old man.” Surgeon came to the captain’s defense. “We are in unknown territory and sitting pretty for anyone who would want to take a shot at us. I’d want to get out of here as fast as possible, too, if I were him. In fact, I want to get out of here as fast as possible and I’m not him.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’m gettin’ pretty anxious, too.” Seth returned his gaze to the lift doors. When they opened, he found himself stepping out into what could have been compared to a nest of angry bees.
The ship’s crew were running themselves ragged, trying to help the commandos load their sensor gear into the skiffs. The soldiers were yelling at the crew, giving orders, and just being pains in the ass for the most part. Tensions were definitely running high right at that moment.
Surgeon approached the general. “Sir, I’ve checked with the loading chief and we’ll be ready for deployment in less than five minutes.”
“Good. I want to try something different this time to see if we can deploy the grid faster. There will be two skiffs per unit. One will carry the sensor equipment and two men, while the other will carry four men and provide cover fire and ground support should the need arise.” The general was still looking at his men preparing for their mission. “Two craft will perform perimeter guard duty around the ship and immediate area with three men per craft. You and Cadet will be in the lead skiff upon deployment.”
“Yes, sir”, Seth answered for Surgeon. “Thank you, sir.”
“Thank me when this is all over.” The general cast a glance at Seth. “If you’re still alive. If any of us are.”
Surgeon gave a small nod towards the general and started towards his craft with Seth in tow. Each skiff was eight meters long and four meters wide. When the entry hatches were closed, there were no visible seams or entrances. The crew wore helmets that transmitted real-time data of the space surrounding the craft in every direction that the wearer turned his head; this made physical windows on the craft unnecessary. The craft looked like a dull black cigar made for a giant.
The hull was designed with millions of fiber-optic relays built into every square centimeter covering the ship. When the ship was being scanned, the energy entered the fiber-optic relay and passed through it to exit at the exact same point on the opposite side of the hull. Unless the ship was moving too quickly for the relays to transmit the energy to the other side or the hull was somehow damaged, the ship could avoid detection by even the most sophisticated scanners. Or more precisely, all the ones that had been encountered so far. Who knows what kind of scanners these aliens might have? Seth didn’t even want to think about it.
“Take the co-pilot’s seat.” Surgeon gestured to Seth as they boarded the craft.
Both men took their seats and put on their hel
mets. Once in flight, it would be the closest experience to flying, without mechanical aid, that they could get. With the helmets sealed at the neck, the visuals put before the wearer were so clear and precise, it was as though they weren’t wearing a helmet at all. Everywhere they looked, they saw what was going on around the ship without actually seeing the ship. It was as though they were just floating on air.
The central computer used light that entered the fiber-optic relays and translated it into a picture that was projected onto the pilot’s visor. The image could be changed to a variety of different displays such as infrared, acoustic sonar readings, or a combination of any of the other many settings the helmet had.
Seth winked once with his right eye to activate the comlink in his helmet. “All crews report in.” After receiving confirmation from the units, he began to lift his skiff and head for the open bay doors. “Team five will patrol the area in a five-click radius from the ship. I will take team one directly aft of the ship to set up our sensor arrays. Team two will go directly to port, team three to the bow, and team four to starboard.
“Remember to check in every twenty minutes. We’ll be thirty clicks from the ship so if anyone gets into trouble, it’ll be a few minutes before help can arrive. The sooner the warning, the better. Don’t anyone be a hero.”
“With how much we get paid?” Joker said from team three. “I don’t think you have to remind us.”
“Yeah, well, I get your tapioca pudding if you don’t come home tonight”, Blaze said as he started his patrol route in team five.
“Let’s get it done, people.” The general’s voice was distinctive, even over a comlink channel. All chatter ceased immediately and the ships started out on their first official task of the mission.
Chapter 21
Dig Site One – Now We’re Getting Somewhere
“Son of a bitch!” Bloom yelped as blue sparks jumped from the wiring he had pulled from the wall. They were unable to find another access plate like the one outside the main door. The only thing they did find was a display panel to the left of the lift. It was in pieces now as Bloom attempted to hotwire it. “I figure that whoever was the last one down this thing locked it somehow from the bottom. I can’t get the right combination of wires to bring it up.”
“Maybe there isn’t a combination of wires. Maybe those don’t even control this thing”, Davies said from his makeshift cot in the hallway.
“How much rope do we have left?” Emily asked over her shoulder.
“Not enough to get down to the bottom. Especially because we don’t even know how deep it is.” Daria was just finishing up making an inventory of the supplies. Luckily not much had been damaged in the recent firefight.
“Motherfucker!” This time it was closer to a scream from Bloom. He turned to look towards the laughter coming from behind him. “What the hell is so damned funny!” he demanded.
Wilks pointed to Bloom’s head and tried to speak but ended up rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically. Tears were streaming down his face.
What Bloom couldn’t see was that the last shock had stood his hair on end. All his hair. His arms, head, eyebrows, everything. It was just too funny not to laugh.
Finally gaining her composure, Emily said through slight chuckles, “Here’s what we’re gonna do. Bloom, have Daria take a look at your burns. We’re going to camp here for the night. In the morning, we’ll use what rope we have to get down the lift shaft.
“We’ll go down one at a time and anchor ourselves to the wall at the end of the rope. When we all get to that point, we’ll slide the doubled-up rope through the top anchor and reattach it at our new anchor point and start over. We’ll do this until we reach the bottom. Any questions?”
“Where’d you get balls so damned big?” Scan asked from the rear.
“Wouldn’t you like to know”, Emily said, turning towards Davies. “You think that eight hours will give you enough time before we try this thing?”
“You bet, el-tee. I just need a little rest.” Davies allowed his ever heavier eyelids to close. He was asleep before his eyes vanished behind the lids.
“I’m gonna wrap this burn for tonight and then I’ll give you a topical anesthetic tomorrow before we start our descent.” Daria was almost finished applying the dressing.
“Thanks, Doc. You got anything for this headache?” Bloom asked, rubbing his forehead.
“Just a little violin playing for you. Just kidding, I have something that should clear it up for you. Scan, how’s that hand coming? You gonna be able to make it down that hole tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll just need to seal it to help prevent an infection. If you have any of those steroids that you used on Davies, that would help some.”
Daria got out the steroid spray and left the cellular repair solution in the bag. The cellular spray tended to act as a coagulant in Trizites, which actually inhibited and even sometimes stopped their natural healing abilities.
Steroids, on the other hand, helped to repair muscle tissue and increase the red blood cell count, which increased the amount of oxygenation within the body. Put those two together and steroids had a tremendous healing ability.
Of course, even after hundreds of years of advances in protein supplements and body conditioning resources, steroids were still abused. Daria hated to see a marine on ’roids. They were usually mean and strong enough as it was. An extra dose of testosterone just wasn’t necessary.
Although, one time she was glad that a fellow marine was a junkie. She was in a trench sitting in mud up to her waist, taking fire from all directions. Her platoon had been ambushed and help was five minutes out. That was about four minutes and thirty seconds too far.
A ’roid junkie marine was in the pit next to Daria and started to freak out. Daria kept trying to calm him down and was starting to reach into her pack to put sedative in her medicspray.
The huge marine turned to her with glazed over eyes and said, “Cover me.” He grabbed the rifle of the dead marine next to him along with his own and began running towards the first enemy position. His armor took several rounds before the first one pierced his left shoulder. He kept firing.
He slung his right weapon over his shoulder and pulled two grenades from his chest and threw them into the first machine-gun pit. He was close enough that the explosion ripped off his left arm as shrapnel tore through his armor. He raised his right arm and kept firing.
He ran to the second pit and triggered a mine on the way. He was thrown forward while his legs went in every other direction. He kept firing.
With the second machine-gun pit cleared, he turned to fire on the force occupying the opposite side of the pit his platoon was stuck in. He took two rounds in the chest through his destroyed armor. He kept firing.
Only when his right arm was finally shot off by the enemy did he stop firing. When he saw Daria starting to squirm from the pit towards him to help, he used the stump of his right wrist to arm his last grenade. He rolled over on it so he would take the full blast and not harm his would-be rescuer.
The platoon had been saved by a junkie. She had never really liked that guy, she couldn’t even remember his name, but she was glad that he had been around on that day or she wouldn’t be around right now. Of course, she mused to herself, that might not be for long anyway. She handed Scan the medicspray of Deca.
Emily walked by and gave Daria a smile and a nod. Bloom stood. “Hey el-tee, let’s see what we can make of this equipment before we sack out.”
“Sounds good. I think I located a command terminal in that room we were in before the attack. Hopefully it’s a little friendlier than those lift wires.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Let me get my datapad from the gear. It has a decoding and language analyzer program that I created. That guy,” he said pointing to the covered body of the alien prisoner, “sounded like he was speaking some familiar languages mixed together. If so, it shouldn’t be too hard to translate.”
“If they occupied this
space more than a thousand years ago, it would make sense that their language had been passed on to indigenous species in this sector. Over that length of time and a separation of cultures, it could’ve very easily sprouted into hundreds of dialects by now”, Emily replied to Bloom as the two left Daria’s earshot.
Daria turned to Davies and took a vital signs reading off the patch she had placed on his forehead. She stroked his blond hair out of the way, which had grown a little too long since they took this so-called “cush” assignment. She began to feel very attached to this marine. She had already lost one man who she loved and didn’t even want to imagine losing a second. Without even thinking, she bent over and gently kissed the sleeping marine’s forehead.
Davies stirred but never opened his eyes. Daria would watch him for the rest of the night.
~
“Hey el-tee, you really think that’s a smart thing to do?” Bloom asked as he flinched every time Emily stabbed at another button on the console.
“I don’t think that we could trip anything from in here. But even if I could, it’s a risk that we’re gonna have to take if we want to find anything out.” Emily stopped and smiled. Bloom looked over her shoulder to see what she had accomplished. “There”, she said and pointed to the screen. It was scrolling information. “One reason we haven’t come even close to deciphering their language is that we haven’t found enough characters to even try to configure a base alphabet to start from.”
Bloom’s lips curved into a smile that matched his CO’s. “That should be more than enough for my program to run. I’ll set it up to scan all night and it should compile enough characters to translate this language. Unless, of course, this is an encrypted console and these aren’t actual alphabet characters.” The two looked at each other. Bloom shrugged and set up his scanner and started the program.
Emily left Bloom to his task and found Wilks. He was talking to Fang about the watch rotation for the evening. “Sergeant, can I speak with you for a moment?”
