Extinction

by Korza, Jay

  “Good point,” Surgeon said. “So if they know we’re here but not where, how are they trying to find us? We haven’t seen any ships in the area and we haven’t detected any sensor scans.”

  Seth was next. “They could be waiting for us to make the first move. And that could work either way. They know we’re here and where we are, but want to see how we’ll react to this situation. Maybe try to figure out our tactics. Or they don’t know where we are but are still just waiting for us to make the move. Either way, I think that this is just a training exercise to them.”

  Blaze, the heavy weapons officer, spoke up from Surgeon’s wing. “If they’re just waiting to see what we’ll do, there’s a good chance that we can take them by surprise. Lead them to think that we’re doing one thing while planning a second. It’s almost like a game of cat and mouse to them. The trick is to keep them guessing long enough so that they stay interested and continue to give us more and more rope. Then we hang them with it.”

  Surgeon thought for a few minutes while the rest of the commandos clogged the comlink with chatter about Blaze’s idea. Finally, he came to a decision. “I have two thoughts. First is that we really have nothing to lose by trying out our theories. Even if we are undetected, we couldn’t make it home under our own power. Second, if we’re right, I think that Blaze’s idea has a chance.

  “I want the other three team leaders to come up with flight plans that will keep our friends wondering what the hell is going on. Plan sensor sweeps of the area. I want to get as close to those ships and the planet below as we can to get some good intelligence. They may stay curious just long enough for us to sneak a couple of ships in.

  “I’ll take any ideas, no matter how crazy, on how to rescue our captured crew and obtain a ship to get us home. We’ll let the rest of the fleet worry about fighting the war. Keep the comlink clear for the next hour and then we’ll compare notes.”

  The small spaces inside each ship suddenly came alive with activity. Unfinished meals were put in the recycler and datapads were pulled out. Surgeon smiled for a moment as he thought about home. Everyone he cared about already thought that he was dead, and that was all right, because he didn’t think that he was going home this time.

  Chapter 29

  Dig Site One – Here We Go Again

  “Hold up,” Scan and Fang said nearly at the same time. Fang continued, “One of those aliens is nearby. I can smell him.”

  Wilks looked at Scan. “I can sense his hate, Sarge. He’s pissed off, but I think that there’s only one of them.”

  Wilks took another look at his surroundings. Not much of a defensive position in a hallway without rooms to fight from. There was a corner up ahead and the hallway shortened by about half a meter where the turn was. A man could hide above the corner in the small space and ambush whoever came from around the other side.

  “Snake, get out your pitons and put two in each wall on either side of the hallway just above the corner. Make sure that Fang will be able to hold onto one with each hand and use the other two as foot rests.” Wilks turned to the others in the group.

  “The rest of us will sit down at the end of this hallway and act as bait. Either his scanner will detect us or he’ll see us as he comes down the hall. Either way, he should be more interested in us sitting ducks than to paying too much attention to the area above him. I’m sure“—or rather hope, he thought—“that he thinks the element of surprise is on his side.”

  Snake finished the rigging with the help of Fang, who immediately got into position above the hallway. Wilks turned with an afterthought. “Let’s try to take him alive. Maybe he’ll be more willing to talk than our last friend was. Go for leg and arm shots to disable. I don’t care if the fucker needs a wheelchair for the rest of his life; I just want him alive.”

  Fang lay suspended above the hallway with his muscles tense with the strain of his weight and the anticipation of battle. He could now hear as well as smell his enemy approaching and he knew that the time was near. Ten meters. Eight. Six. Four. He repositioned slightly for a better angle—or was it just nerves? Two meters. The prey was slowing before the curve of the hallway. Did he sense the ambush or was he just being cautious at a blind intersection? One meter. Almost in the kill zone. The alien rounded the corner, bringing his weapon to bear on the decoys at the end of the hall.

  A bright flash of plasma shot from his weapon at the same time Fang dropped from his perch and landed square on the alien’s back. The blow made his shot go high and Fang’s momentum dropped them both to the ground. The would-be attacker lay motionless.

  Wilks and the rest of the team came running down the corridor. Scan was the first to speak up. “Uh, pretty anticlimactic, don’t you think? I mean one shot goes high and we win.”

  Wilks looked at him with a sour expression. “If you’d like, I could start shooting at you if that would make you feel better. Take your blessings as they come.”

  No sooner had Wilks finished speaking when the alien came suddenly to life again. A foot attached to a monstrous-sized leg hit Snake square in the face and threw him several meters back. A small hand weapon was produced from the alien’s left lower arm and with a precision shot, took out Martinez’ left eye and most of his brain.

  Wilks kicked at the weapon instinctively and hit it out of the alien’s hand. The alien’s top left hand was just as quick, though, and grabbed Wilks’ ankle and crushed it like a flimsy beer can. Wilks screamed in pain as Fang brought the hilt of his sword down on the attacker’s forehead, leaving him unconscious once again.

  “Tie him up now!” Wilks said through clenched teeth. Snake was already up and removing several meters of Kevlar rope from his pack. They had the alien hog-tied in a matter of seconds.

  “Wilks to Lieutenant O’Riley”, he said as Scan wrapped his broken ankle in a splint.

  “Go ahead, Wilks”, Emily said from her console in sickbay.

  “We just nabbed one of those bastards. Fang and Scan both think that he was the only one down here. We’ve got him tied up. You wanna come down here and ask him a few questions?”

  “Negative. Bring him to the lab; I think we found something that will help.”

  “Copy, el-tee. It’ll take us a few, though. My ankle is broken and Martinez is dead.” Wilks winced as Scan tightened up the brace for walking.

  “Understood. I’ll send Cannon and Jockey to help with the load. See you guys in a bit. Out.” Emily turned to her companions. “All right, let’s get the finishing touches done on this thing. We’ve got a guinea pig to try it out on.”

  The room was alive with a new sense of purpose as each soldier worked double-time to finish their task.

  Thirty minutes later, the advance team came through the doorway to the lab with Wilks on makeshift crutches and the huge alien carried on a stretcher between six men. Martinez was in a body-bag that was placed on an examining table at the far end of the lab.

  Daria took a medical scanner to the body and examined the entry wound. The odd reading around Martinez’ skull was also present in Snyder’s wounds, and Daria just couldn’t figure it out. The energy signature and tissue damage looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  “Doc”, Scan said from beside Wilks, “could you come over and take a look at this ankle? Tough guy here says that it’s OK but he can barely stand.”

  “Yeah, sorry”, she said sheepishly, momentarily forgetting that she had a live patient who needed her help. As she approached Wilks, she began to explain, “Sorry but there was a weird energy reading in Snyder’s wounds that disappeared over time. I wanted to see if it was just an anomaly with him or if it was the alien’s weapons. Turns out that Martinez had it, too.”

  “Is that important or just medical curiosity?” Wilks winced as Daria manipulated his ankle.

  “Could be important. I’m really not sure.” She turned to Scan and handed him her medical scanner. “Hold this steady at his ankle. I need the real-time x-ray view of his ank
le as I set the bones.” Scan obeyed and Daria went to work setting the three tarsals that were broken in Wilks’ ankle. “Anyway, I’ve seen the energy signature before; I just don’t know where. Not in any weapons that we’ve encountered but something in medicine. The way the tissue responds to the energy is also odd.”

  “What’s tissue supposed to do when it gets hit by plasma?” Scan asked.

  Daria pulled and then squeezed the last bone into place before answering. “Plasma weapons super heat the fluid in tissue cells and cause them to implode violently. There isn’t enough mass in a body to displace the heat, so the plasma bolt goes all the way through two or three people until the energy is lost in the heat transfer from the bolt to the tissue cells. Or whatever target it hits.

  “This plasma bolt causes more of an aging process on the cells. It’s still super-hot plasma and most of the cells do implode but the ones that aren’t hit directly with the energy die of old age. The cells are aged at an astronomical rate and they just die. The process of aging and tissue death occur for some time after the initial energy explosion.”

  “Why is that important?” Emily came in to the conversation from the other side of the lab.

  “Well, let’s say that you get shot in the leg but you don’t die. The rapid aging process of your cells continues until your leg dies off and then eventually the rest of your torso and you go with it.” She paused on reflection of her own words before she and everyone else looked slowly towards Scan at the same time.

  Scan began to tear off the bandage on his stump. Daria helped him with some trauma shears and together they unraveled the bandage. The stump looked fine but Daria scanned it with her equipment to double-check.

  “It seems as though the steroids and your body’s natural healing ability has negated the aging process of the plasma bolt. But if you look at these readings, I think you’ll agree that your healing process is quite behind schedule. You should have about a half to centimeter more tissue regeneration than you do now.”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. At least it’s growing back, though. It might take an extra two or three weeks to get it done but I think that I’ll be fine.” With a sigh of relief, Scan took out some fresh bandages and began rewrapping his stump.

  “This may be a dumb question”, Emily started as she scooted forward to get a better look at Scan’s hand, “but, if your hand is going to grow back, won’t your webbing come back with it?”

  Scan finished wrapping his hand. “Not a dumb question at all Ma’am. No, my webbing won’t come back.” Scan’s facial spikes turned a light shade of orange. “Once our webbing is damaged to a certain extent, the scar tissue becomes a part of the cells’ memory and the hand grows back the way it was before it was removed.”

  “That sucks.” Emily didn’t know what else to say.

  Daria spoke up to end the awkward silence. “I’m almost finished with Wilks here and then we can start on that one.” She thumbed towards the tied-up alien. “As soon as I remember where I’ve seen this type of tissue damage before, I’ll let you know. It might or might not matter. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you more.”

  Daria used her scanner to verify that all the bones were in place before she pulled a pen-sized object from her kit. She loaded it with six titanium alloy pins. Each one was twice the diameter of a strand of hair and only two centimeters long. She placed the pen up against Wilks’ ankle and fired the first pin into place. She proceeded to put two pins in each fractured bone. After the pins were in place, she applied a thin stocking over the foot and ankle and then sprayed the material with a chemical that heated the cloth and caused it to harden into a durable cast.

  “We’ll be able to take that off in a week or so but you should still be able to walk on it. After every march, I want to scan your ankle to make sure that the pins are holding and nothing is out of place. All right?”

  Daria began to give Wilks a pain reliever when he waved her off. “I need to be on the ball. I can live without that stuff.” With a wink, he added, “I didn’t take anything after they fixed me up from you.”

  Daria just shook her head and walked to the alien, who was becoming conscious. “So, do we have the tube ready?”

  Davies was tightening a bolt on the back side of the tube while Bloom tapped in commands at the main console. Bloom looked up. “Yeah, I gotta hand it to these guys; their equipment sure does last a long time. I usually can’t keep our hardware operational for more than two years, let alone a thousand.”

  “What is this thing?” Fang asked as he inspected the tube and the surgical instruments that whirled, spun, and poked in the air as Bloom ran through a diagnostic routine.

  “We thought that it was some sort of surgical bay at first but now we know what it’s truly for.” Emily looked at the alien, who was coming out of his stupor. Waking up, he began to struggle against his bonds until he opened his eyes and found himself directly in front of the tube. All struggling stopped and his eyes grew large as sweat beaded on his forehead. “Apparently, our friend here already knows what it is. Good, you bastard! I’m glad that you know what’s in store for you.”

  Bloom picked up where the el-tee left off. “It’s a torture device. We think that it can be used for surgery, too, but mostly torture. See, you put the guy in the tube and it clamps him down. The probes find weak points in the subject’s nervous system and then exploits them. From the visual and audio logs we found, it does the job quite well.”

  “We need to strip his clothes off”, Bloom said while still typing in commands. When no one moved, he looked up. “Hey, it’s not my machine. I’m just telling you what it says we have to do. C’mon, Fang, give me a hand.”

  Both soldiers pulled out their field knives and went to work on the alien’s armor. When they couldn’t get through the thick vest, Daria pulled out her fighting knife and cut through the material as though it were butter.

  When they had finished and stepped back, everyone could see the fresh wounds and probe marks all over the alien’s body. “Looks like he already had a go-round with one of these tubes”, Daria said.

  “Who cares? I say throw him in, even if he starts to talk on his own.” Wilks walked over. “Besides, he knows what’s coming. If he wanted to talk, he’d already have started.”

  “I agree, let’s put him in.” Emily looked at Bloom. “Is it ready?”

  “Yeah, let’s pick him up and then put his back in first. This thing was designed to untie prisoners itself and then arrange the body in whatever position it needed to. I guess most of the subjects didn’t go willingly. Go figure.” Bloom waited until the alien was lifted to the chamber before he touched the last button that started the cycle. Two powerful arms came from the device and pulled its subject in while a cutting blade removed the wraps from the prisoner’s arms and legs.

  “He isn’t even fighting it”, Fang said almost to himself.

  “He knows that he can’t win”, Bloom said before turning to Emily. “Ma’am, it looks as though it’ll take about one to three hours for this thing to find the subject’s weak points. Maybe less considering he has had a recent encounter with another one of these tubes. I suggest we set up camp and explore a little bit.”

  “Let’s set up camp in the adjoining lab. I want at least two men in this room on watch at all times. As for exploring, we stick to data exploration for now. No one leaves a fifty-meter radius of this lab.” Emily paused and thought a moment. “Bloom, Davies, and Doc, I need you three to help me gather as much info from the database as possible. I don’t want anyone working for more than two hours at a time. You might pass something by that was important. After camp is set, you three take a two-hour break before starting again. Wilks, put together a watch schedule and whoever is not on watch will relax, and that’s an order.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am”, came from everyone as bodies went to work and some went to sleep. Through all of the commotion, no one could hear the ever-so-slight whimpering that emanated from the tube against the far
wall.

  Chapter 30

  Detrill Home World

  “The court dancers are exquisite, Your Highness”, the guest said from his seat next to the emperor. The men and women of the Royal Court Dance Troupe continued to dance and jump in the air with a precision that was unmatched throughout the Coalition. The costumes were simply divine and the choreography impossible to duplicate.

  “Thank you”, the emperor replied with great satisfaction. “They begin training from almost the time they are born. They have done me and the empire a great honor in agreeing to become an official part of the court. They are without equal.”

  The two men watched on from their places at the throne as the show continued. A court messenger came running into the great hall and bowed before his liege. Through his panting, he asked, “May I speak? I have an urgent message.”

  “Please remove yourself from the floor”, the emperor whispered as not to disturb the performance. “You know I don’t like the whole kneeling thing. It’s just too, too, gaudy.” The emperor was a fair man who rose from the lowest levels of poverty to his great position over the empire. He ruled his people with integrity and a light heart. He didn’t consider himself a real emperor, but rather a servant to his people and empire.

  “Yes, sire, I apologize.” The messenger stood and leaned to whisper into his master’s ear. “The Empress of Nortes wishes a conference with you at once.”

  The emperor became rigid. After almost nine hundred years of unbroken silence, the ruler of the Nortes requested an audience with the ruler of the Detrill. This could only mean one thing, and for the first time in more than twenty years, the emperor wished that he were still a peasant.

  Davies