by Susan Kelley
“Do you want to stay away from me?”
Again his thoughtful pause before answering. “Recon Marines don’t take action on what they want.”
She stood up and put her hands on his chest. His thin shirt outlined every muscle of his torso. Beneath her hand his heart gave away the answer he’d avoided speaking. “I’m not asking the marine. I’m asking the man.”
“Molly, what we’ve seen so far….”
“Let’s forget it for a little while.”
“I can’t. Those men, those monsters we’ve seen, they came from the same place as I did. The same kind of people made me….”
She stretched up and kissed him to stop his tortured words. When he would have pulled away, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Then he was kissing her back, holding her so tight to him that she had trouble getting her breath. Or maybe it was the way his kisses made her feel that left her lightheaded.
The room spun for the space of a second and then she was on her back on his bed. Mak’s hands pressed into the pillow on either side of her head and no part of his body touched her except his lips. They were enough for her to know she wanted more. But then he stopped. She reached for him but he tugged her to her feet.
“We can’t do this.”
“Why not?” Molly struggled to find her breath.
“Your father wouldn’t want me….”
“Mak, don’t bring up my father when we’re about to make love.”
“Make love? You mean engage in sexual intercourse?”
His words cooled the lustful heat driving her. She did want to have sex with him and experience the lean muscular body naked against hers. But it wasn’t a physical desire that had driven her to kiss him. Not this time and not the first time. “Have you ever made love, Mak?”
His intense eyes clouded, leaving them the dark bluish black of an approaching storm. “No. I’m not sure I would know love.”
Of course he wouldn’t know. She touched his cheek. “Maybe someday you’ll find out. Why don’t you take a nap? You look exhausted.”
He raised his eyebrow, totally unaware how charming it made him look. She swept past him and out the door.
Helen still worked in the lab, giving Molly privacy in their shared room to mull over Mak. During her teen years, she’d immersed herself in her studies, proving herself over and over again to medical professors who didn’t care to have a youthful genius showing them up. Her strong facial features and rangy body didn’t attract many men and those it did soon were intimidated by her intellect. Or frightened away by her father’s position. Not that she longed for male company. Her life was full with her travels and her research. She had friends among her colleagues and respect from her peers. Her father had never introduced her to many of his military officers. Many times he’d told her to avoid marriage to an army man though her mother had never complained.
Truthfully, she found many officers over proud. Others were dull or narrow-minded like Corporal Box. But Mak wasn’t stuffed with pride, merely confident of his abilities. And he wasn’t the least bit dull as well as being very intelligent. Everything a genius doctor could want in a man.
This mission had taken on a horror that might scar all of them before they completed it. But Mak would suffer the most. She felt a fool for not considering how Mak would identify with these lab creations they were chasing down. When he wouldn’t let Andy kill those on Julian she should have spotted it. Then again, psychology wasn’t one of her areas of study.
Molly took a quick shower and then returned to the lab. Helen muttered to herself as she readied samples for the high-powered scope. Molly took her personal AI device and went to her small desk. She tapped into the data stream and searched out psychology journals. She might not have a degree in psych but she was a genius. She could learn to understand Mak. And maybe figure out her own reaction to him and why she cared whether or not he’d ever made love.
Chapter Ten
Arid Four had few areas suitable for human habitation. Mak found it before they broke atmosphere but he flew around the planet anyway to check for other populations. Nothing human and very few animals. The people living and working at the lab would have had to ship in every bit of food and other raw materials.
No jungle or forest had tried to take over Arid Four’s landing pad. Not even dust had covered the tarmac. More stone than dirt comprised the surrounding ground without even a breath of wind to erode the rock to dust.
“Go see if the doctors are ready,” Mak told Pender. “And bring the corporal forward. He can watch the sensors while we’re off ship.”
Despite Box’s surprising ownership of the blame for his injuries, Mak knew if he hadn’t hesitated to shoot, the corporal wouldn’t have been injured. He did a full sweeping scan of the area again. No signs of life. There hadn’t been signs of life on the space station either but they’d found lots of danger.
The stark gray metal of the lab buildings stood out against the browns of the barren landscape. Not one green plant or scurrying lizard. The outside temperature ranged on the cool side.
Box eased into the copilot’s chair. “I could go with you, sir.”
“Looks like a simple recon mission. Let me know if you see anything moving besides us.”
Mak strapped on his prepared weapons belt, leaving his rifle behind. Instead he picked up the foot long bomb sniffer. The tube-like instrument flared out on the sensor end and had a small boxy attachment near the handle where readings would present. And he was going first everywhere they went.
Pender waited with the doctors. Molly looked at him as if she had a question or lots of questions but she didn’t vocalize any of them.
Dr. Loren fussed with his pack, his hands trembling. “You’re sure there’s no life out there?”
“Yes, doctor.” The man didn’t looked reassured and Mak didn’t blame him. He’d much rather face an armed enemy than more discoveries like they’d stumbled on last time. “Nobody enters a door or walks through an open area until I’ve cleared it.”
“You said there wasn’t anything out there,” Dr. Shear said.
“Nothing living. They may have left traps behind like they did on the space station.”
“Yes, sir.” Now Pender looked as worried as the doctors.
Mak led the way out the door, wondering how good a commander he was. Both the soldiers with him had been injured and could have been killed. He’d never worked with regular soldiers before. None of his Recon Marine brothers would have made the mistakes that Pender and Box had, but Mak still took the blame. He realized he had five people to protect instead of only the three doctors.
“Damn, it’s cold here,” muttered Dr. Loren as they walked the fifty yards to the lab.
The quiet wasn’t comfortable. Mak’s instincts stirred restlessly but not so much with warning as the sense of something wrong. Then he saw the body.
It wore a one-piece jumpsuit, the front dark with a long, dried stain around the collar and down over the front. The arid climate had sucked the moisture from the body, leaving a shriveled husk topped with a fuzz of short hair on the scalp. Its mouth hung open, exposing a mouthful of white teeth. It gave it the appearance of a silent scream, but the expression might have been produced by the contraction of muscles and skin.
Mak swept the sniffer over it, though he saw no sign of tampering. The man had leaned back against the rock and died. The others hung back, not able to see why Mak had stopped. “Doctors, you might want to check this one.”
He moved forward a few steps to allow them access. Pender lingered with the doctors, looking around like he didn’t trust the sensors that no enemy lurked there. Good boy.
Mak looked around also but not for the living. The body laying untended in the open didn’t bode well for what else awaited them.
Molly joined him, her tone grim. “He died of a neck wound. Looks like it was torn by a wild animal, not a weapon.”
Except there were no wild animals on this planet. None beyond those p
robably created in this lab. Would it never end? Mak regretted his agreement to lead this mission more with every stop. But if he hadn’t come along, Molly would still have been right here. Then who would have protected her? Soldiers like Pender and Box?
“Stay behind me.” Mak started off again. No more bodies at least. A trail of dark splashes on the walkway marked the dead man’s escape from the doors they approached. Like the first lab they’d found, this one had a set of cargo doors nearest the tarmac to receive supplies. A hover unit sat right inside the door, intact and still charged.
Mak checked the entire area before allowing the others to enter. The interior set of doors opened into a familiar hallway lined with doors on each side. “There must be a basic floor plan for secret illegal labs.”
For some reason the doctors laughed. Maybe it was that nervous civilian laughter Molly had described. Mak still wasn’t sure he believed in such a thing.
The generator room opened for Mak’s code. The machine looked undamaged. It took Mak and Pender only a few minutes to find the reset and power it up. Lights came on down the hallway.
The storage area bore a faint remembrance of spoiled food. Crates of goods filled the shelves. Another door held a large hunk of a dead machine.
Mak had never seen one so massive, but he recognized it as a water purifier attached to a pump. They must have drawn their water from deep below the surface.
The office doors were all closed, but Mak found none of them locked. Mak swept them first, the sniffer finding no explosives. A mug sat near an older model of computer tablet. A shelf contained papers, a rarity anywhere let alone on an isolated planet. From all appearances, the office’s occupant had stepped away for a moment. The sense of wrongness grew in Mak.
“We’ll come back and look around after we explore the rest,” Mak said when Molly peeked in from the open door.
Excitement lit her eyes. “They left everything behind.”
“I’m more worried about who killed the guy out there and why they all left in such a hurry.” Mak opened the next few doors, finding similar scenes of abandoned workspaces. He debated sending the rest of them outside until he found what caused the knot in his stomach.
“Hey, I’ve heard of this guy.” Dr. Loren stood beside Mak in the doorway of the last office. He pointed at a gaudy nameplate on the desk. “George Johnston. My professor of early childhood treatments for genetic illnesses used Johnston’s research journals as required reading.”
“I met him once,” Molly said. “I haven’t seen any new research from him for a long time.”
“Probably because he was here.” Mak backed out of the room. “I doubt he could make public anything he was working on.”
“I can’t wait to read his computer,” Dr. Loren said.
Mak led them down the hall, finding civilian living quarters behind the next doors on the right and the left. Clothing hung in closets and other personal objects lay in causal disarray in the lounging areas. Shared bathing areas held faint aromas of scented soaps though everything had dried long ago.
“The next areas should be labs, barracks and training areas.” Mak slowed, checking the readings on the sniffer with each step. It detected nothing. He opened the door on the right, revealing a long open barracks, each cot perfectly made. The door on the left hung open a few inches. “Stay back.”
He reached out with the bomb sniffer. Nothing. He used the head of the device to push the door open. It swung halfway before something behind it stopped it.
The silence beyond the door didn’t feel empty. “Wait until I say it’s clear.” Mak walked two steps into the room. The rest of the facility had been so orderly and undisturbed that the total chaos didn’t make sense at first. Heavy metal lab tables lay on their sides, a few on top of desiccated bodies. Some of the bodies died only half clothed and wearing standard military grade underclothing. The rest of the dead wore the same style clothing as the dead man outside.
At the far end of the room wide windows overlooked an indoor training area. Something had shattered one pane of the thick glass. More bodies sprawled among the weight lifting machines and padded wrestling areas.
“Can we come in?” Molly asked from the doorway.
Mak checked the readings on the bomb sniffer. Still nothing. Perhaps all this death had pinged at his instincts. “Stay near the door for now.”
What had happened here? The doctors would figure it out. They would only have to dig through another stack of dead people, a long process with these numbers. The very thought made Mak a bit nauseous. And the dry air irritated his eyes and stuffed up his nose. Even his mouth had a bitter…. “Out! Everybody out!”
Molly stumbled into the other two doctors as she turned toward the door. Pender still stood in the doorway. He reacted quickly and hauled Dr. Loren into the hallway.
Mak threw aside the sniffer and wrapped his arms around the two women. Dr. Shear gagged and sagged in his arms. Molly wilted, her weight pulling him off balance and causing them to run into the hallway wall.
Pender struggled ahead of them with his arm around Loren’s waist. The doctor moved his legs but the soldier supported his weight as Mak now did for the two women.
The hallway stretched on, the burning in Mak’s lungs making it longer. Pender coughed and gagged as he staggered through the door into the cold sunlight. He dropped Dr. Loren and fell to his knees.
Mak dragged the two women a few steps from the door and put them on the ground near Loren. He tapped the radio as he pushed the doors closed behind him. “Corporal, get to the medical lab. We need cortical steroid treatments for gas exposure. Find it. I’m on my way.”
Before leaving the others, Mak rolled all the doctors to their sides. All of them coughed and wheezed. “Pender, make sure they don’t choke on their vomit if they get sick.”
The soldier nodded, his eyes red and swollen.
Mak sprinted toward the ship, the clean air helping his body expel the toxins. He leaped into the ship without using the steps.
Box leaned into a cabinet, nosily pushing vials and bottles aside. “What happened?” The corporal turned, holding up a glass case of prefilled syringes.
Mak grabbed it and ran back down the hall. His leap out the door carried him thirty feet out onto the tarmac. He heard Box pounding down the steps behind him.
Pender crouched near the doctors, his eyes swollen to mere slits. Mak snapped open the case and handed a syringe to the soldier. “Jab it right below your collar bone.”
Mak didn’t watch him. He took out another dose and rolled Molly to her back. He yanked open her shirt, tearing off the snaps. He stabbed the needle into the muscle above her breast. By the time Box arrived, grimacing with his arms wrapped around his cracked ribs, Mak had treated the other two doctors.
Box handed Mak a water bottle. Exactly what he needed. Mak took a long drink and then offered it to Pender. Some of the swelling already eased around the soldier’s eyes. The doctors stirred. Loren sat up and reached for the water.
Mak nodded to Box. “Well done, corporal.”
“Don’t you need a shot, sir?” Pender croaked.
“I’m fine.”
Dr. Loren ran a trembling hand over his pale face. Molly and Dr. Shear coughed and groaned, neither trying to sit up. Even with the antidote, their bodies would suffer from the poison.
“Corporal, see if you can help Dr. Loren. Pender, help Dr. Shear.” Mak lifted Molly, cradling her in front of his body like a child. “They all need to get out of their clothing and shower. All of us, including you, corporal. The gas particles will cling to your skin and hair.”
Mak jogged ahead with Molly. By the time he carried her up the steps, she’d come around. He shushed her when she tried to talk and took her directly to his room. “Get a shower and throw your clothing, boots and all, in the cleaner.”
He bent down and lifted her feet one at a time to remove her boots. She put her hand on his shoulder to help balance. “Can you do the rest yourself?”
She nodded, her hands going to the snaps on her pants.
Mak ran back outside and took Dr. Shear form Pender. He carried her to the room she shared with Molly and gave her the same instructions he’d given to Molly. His muscles burned with uncharacteristic fatigue as he made another trip outside to help Dr. Loren. The man protested when Mak picked him up, but his hoarse words held little force.
After depositing Loren in the room he shared with the other men and giving him instructions, Mak went back outside with the two soldiers.
Pender looked ill, but his breathing sounded better and the swelling had left his face. He had been just inside the door to the poisoned room and probably only received a small dose.
Box held the antidote package in one hand, his eyes a bit wide. “What happened, sir? Was it another trap?”
Mak shook his head. “I think they set it off years ago and killed everyone in there except the guy we found outside.”
“Why would they even have such a deadly gas here?” Box asked.
Mak thought of the wound on the dead man and the smashed window. “Failsafe in case they lost control of their test subjects.”
“Those were scientists in that room, sir,” Pender managed. “Did they accidently poison themselves?”
“Not sure. We’ll go back in after everyone recovers.” Mak knew they had oxygen masks for everyone, required safety equipment on all interstellar ships.
“Why weren’t you affected, sir?” Box asked.
Mak didn’t hear the usual disgust in Box’s question. “My body has been designed genetically to resist toxins. I’m not sure what the gas was but the residual was strong enough that I sensed it.”
“Good thing you did.” Pender’s voice sounded a bit better. “We were in there less than a minute and it almost….”
“But it didn’t.” Mak didn’t want to think about what would have happened if someone else had been leading them. They’d all be dead. “Go see if Loren is finished. All clothing including boots into the cleaner and scrub your skin and hair thoroughly.”
“Yes, sir,” Pender said.
