Metamorph: The Outbounder Chronicles

by Chris Reher

  Ryle whipped around to see Toji there, burdened by bottles of portable air. “I thought we could store these in here, to make more room…” He paused when he saw Denzloe. “Hello.”

  Laryn saw Denzloe’s hand reach for something hidden under his ragged jacket and moved to stand in front of the Kalon. “Wait!”

  Ryle’s arm shot out and grasped the man’s wrist before he could point his pistol at Toji.

  “That’s them!” Denzloe yelled struggling to pull out of Ryle’s grip. “One of them. I’m sure of it!”

  Toji stumbled backward, out into the corridor, when Laryn motioned him back. She put her fingers to her lips. “Stay in your cabin for a bit. I’ll explain later.”

  “Calm down,” Ryle said to Denzloe. “That’s compressed gas you were going to shoot.” He pulled the gun from the man’s hand, but did so gently. “That… um, person came with us from the station. You have nothing to fear.”

  “What? Why…” Denzloe’s confusion and fear stood clear on his face. “But it looks like I’ve been told they look. Sort of. We have to tell the others!”

  Laryn nudged Ryle aside and sat down, opposite Denzloe. “No, we don’t. Listen, Denzloe. You are safe. He’s not going to hurt you. He is a Kalon, named Toji. He’s… he’s part of the crew.”

  “Kale… what?” Denzloe tried to peer around Ryle into the hallway. “That’s not Human. It’s one of them!”

  “The Kalons are guests aboard Pendra Station,” Ryle said. “You would not have met them on your way through there. They’re kind of new.”

  “But, but…” Denzloe frowned in an effort to make sense of this. “Why are they here, on Torren? The ones like him.”

  “That we don’t know,” Ryle said. “But we’re hoping to find out. You can help us.”

  “What? Me?”

  “Yes. This is your chance to prove to Sola Crow and the others you were right all along. Wouldn’t that be something? You can show us where your people think they hang out. In those tunnels.”

  “Seriously?” Laryn came to her feet again, wishing they could talk without the man’s presence here. That the caves could harbor a breeding ground for Kalons and, quite likely, the object of Iko’s quest, seemed very real now. “We need to be thinking about leaving here. Immediately.”

  He turned to her with a grin that seemed to take years off his face. “You keep saying that. Where’s your sense of adventure, Agent? This is just our thing.” He clapped her upper arm as he might roughhouse with a crewmate, nearly making her stumble.

  She glared at him but he turned into the corridor and then they heard him thumping on Azah’s cabin door. “Time to get to work! There’s prospecting to be done and monsters to hunt!”

  Exasperated, Laryn turned to Denzloe who just looked confused.

  “I sure thought it’d take more to convince him,” he said.

  Chapter Twelve

  “That’s the entrance we use. Down there.”

  Ryle nodded when he spotted an apron of well-trodden sand along the seaside bluffs. He followed Denzloe’s direction to set the Nefer down at the edge of the beach only after Jex assured him that the tide wasn’t about to inundate the ship. The Nefer would handle an immersion in liquid as well as the vacuum of space but clearing her entrance chamber of sea water was more than they were equipped for.

  Unlike the giants that guarded the shore to the east, this slope did not resemble the volcano they had expected. Millennia of tides had eroded the coast into vertical cliffs but the barren hill rose gradually here, built by layer upon layer of ancient lava. Jex reported pockets of magma below the surface, but none under pressure or in danger of erupting.

  “Look,” Azah said, pointing at her monitor. The screens before them showed three of the planet’s multi-legged creatures near the jagged rocks forming the cave entrances. Shorter than the ones they had seen before, but no more appealing. “Locals.”

  “Those are ours,” Denzloe said. “Crawlers. We’ll need them to get past the tunnel crabs. They have a wicked sense of smell.”

  Azah looked like she was about to comment on that, but Ryle spoke first. “We’re going to take the Kalon with us as well. Think you can handle that?”

  “What, the creature?” Denzloe said.

  “His name is Toji,” Laryn said, a little tired of this. “People who leave Earth shouldn’t be surprised by new things.”

  “Seen plenty of new things,” he said. “We can’t leave camp without being chased by new things. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  “I’ll make sure he stays polite,” Azah said, although Laryn wasn’t sure if she meant Toji or Denzloe.

  They moved into the gear room where Ryle handed Laryn a harness, looking like a pair of nanofiber suspenders studded with tools and pockets. She was again wearing the armored suit and vest she had borrowed from Azah and the gear he now showed her seemed to belong to it. “Clip those to your belt. That end straps around your leg. We’ll have to wear these backwards. Denzloe says we’ll lie face down in those crawlers.”

  Denzloe stood on the far side of the ship’s hatch as if trying to put as much space as possible between himself and Toji. The Kalon was busy fitting a hood over his alien head and didn’t even seem to notice Denzloe’s glower. Or perhaps he had decided to ignore the man, Laryn thought. For someone so alien, Toji seemed acutely aware of Human social quirks. “Will we all fit in those things?” she said. “There are only three.”

  “We’ll double up.” Ryle checked a respirator by breathing into it. Each of them slung one of the devices around their neck, ready for deployment in the volcanic depths. He handed out visors and, finally, handguns. “Let’s try to get Toji into one of them before anyone else sees him. Laser weapons only. We don’t want bullets ricocheting off the cave walls.”

  “We won’t be able to monitor you for long,” Nolan said, looking over the data fed to the screens by Jex. “Even with the boosters.”

  “Me neither, Jex?” Ryle said, referring to the remote connection between himself and the AI. Unlike the com units each of them now clipped to their wrists and shoulders, the spread of the receiver on his broad back ensured far better transmission.

  “Not by much,” Jex said. “However, I have located the source of the interference we’ve encountered and will be able to mitigate some of it. There is not much I can do to improve transmissions through the cave walls.”

  “What’s interfering?” Nolan asked.

  “Our signals are being canceled out by an adaptive frequency emitting from several of the hills to the east and north, as well as from some of the subterranean caverns. It is not any technology we have cataloged. If I may, I’d like to index the system for further analysis.”

  “You do that, Jex,” Ryle said, busy with his equipment.

  “You don’t think that could be a natural phenomenon?” Laryn said.

  “It is highly responsive and precise. It may actually be used as beacon, or even com signal. A language no more decipherable than the Kalons’.”

  “Let’s go,” Ryle said. “Denzloe and Azah, you go down first. Toji follows – get him and one of the crawlers into the cave entrance before someone sees him. Denzloe, you take the lead to where you’ve seen those markings on the wall. I’ll bunk with Toji. Azah and Laryn take the other crawler.”

  Leaving only Nolan aboard the Nefer, the crew descended to the rocky ground where Toji immediately rushed into the shelter of the cave entrance.

  Laryn had to agree with the skeptical expression on Azah’s face as they approached the crawlers. Resembling reddish-green caterpillars more than centipedes, their bloated bodies sat low to the ground on at least a dozen legs per side. Sensors at what appeared to be the front end and on several pairs of legs came to life when Denzloe reached for a switch below the body.

  “There’s a control plate near the front. You’ll lie flat and put your hands on it like this…” He demonstrated by pointing his elbows out. “You’ll be able to see out the front but you should
follow the markers on the screen. The legs’ll do the work for you – you just need to tell them when to turn into a new tunnel. It’ll leave a trail marked so we’ll find our way back.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” Azah said.

  “This geology is not as on Earth,” Jex said. “What we know of volcanoes and lava tubes may not apply. I am detecting fluctuating temperature readings not far below you, suggesting magma pools. Please attend to your sensors to detect noxious gasses.”

  “What he said,” Nolan cut in. “Don’t be taking risks. I’m not cleared to fly the Nefer if you burn your butts down there. Not too keen about getting stuck on this planet. I hear the food isn’t so good.”

  “Thanks for worrying about us,” Ryle said. He turned to Denzloe, who tugged a flap on the side of a crawler to peel back its preserved, leathery skin. “What about your cave crabs or whatever you call them.”

  “Tunnel crabs. Little cousins of the big ones we used to make the stalkers. They come out with the tide and hunt in the sea. These crawlers are tougher and the heat further in doesn’t bother them. It’ll be warm, but you won’t boil inside them.” He cackled in a peculiar cadence and then waved to Laryn to climb inside. “In you go.”

  Laryn followed his directions until she laid flat inside the carcass, on her side to make room for Azah. It was not a comfortable space, having been cleaned and scraped of organic matter which had been replaced by support structures scrounged from the Harla’s supplies. Only the exoskeleton and legs remained but a sour smell permeated the space. Azah sniffed disapprovingly when she stretched out.

  “It’ll bend in the middle, so you make sure you line up with that at the waist,” Denzloe advised as he secured the covering over them. Laryn stretched her neck to watch Azah experiment with the controls.

  They heard Ryle over their com. “How’s it in there?”

  “Wait till you try it,” Azah replied. “Though I guess the mediary is a lot softer to cuddle up to than Toji.”

  Laryn peered through a bleary, transparent insert in front of them, apparently meant to act as window. Another crawler moved out there and Azah set their own in motion with a lurch. She stopped near a few massive boulders while Toji awkwardly folded his long frame into Ryle’s vehicle.

  “This is the weirdest thing I’ve done in a long time,” Azah said. Although Denzloe had advised them to stick to the sensor interpretation of their surroundings, she pulled her visor down from her forehead and switched to night vision. A lamp near the tip of the crawler cast a feeble glow, enough for their visors to turn night into day.

  Laryn did the same and was glad for it as they moved deeper into the cave. The rock-strewn entrance gave way to the smooth lava tube she had expected and the light from outside soon failed. The magma that had surged through here eons ago had leveled the cave floor and the crawler’s many legs rippled across the even surface without jarring its passengers. She twisted her neck to look up at the striated, curving cave walls where stalactites hung like ropes and once or twice daylight showed where the ceiling had caved in. Then the tube angled upward, deeper into the hill and soon no more daylight drifted down on them.

  The mapper under Azah’s hands warned, in groups of red dots, of something alive in the dark. They squinted at huddled shapes along the walls, gathered in clusters. The clusters pulled apart into individuals that moved furtively, startled by the arrival of the crawlers.

  “Those are the tunnel crabs,” Denzloe’s voice crackled over their ear pieces. “They won’t bother us much unless you step out. Just keep moving.”

  Laryn gasped when the shapes, outlined on her visor, lurched toward them, looking much like any animal warding off an intruder it did not quite dare to attack. “Kind of bigger than any crab I’ve ever heard of,” she said. “And those are teeth, not claws.”

  “Yeah, well, on Torren the crabs have teeth,” Denzloe said with bravado in his voice. “Never said they were actual crabs. They’re sort of crabs. We’ll leave it to your smart science folks to sort out what they are. Keep to the right now at the bend. There’s a big cave beyond that.”

  His crawler sped up, heedless of the animals crowding in. Azah whooped in delight when he walked over a cluster of them and gleefully copied the maneuver.

  “There’s no need to harm them,” Laryn said.

  “I didn’t break any. Would have heard them crack or something.” Azah veered to follow Denzloe’s crawler though a split in the tunnel wall. “Whoa!”

  Laryn, too, gaped up at the massive vault above them, turning the tunnel into a vast chamber that even their visors had trouble penetrating fully. Some of the tunnel residents scurried away from a water-filled depression surrounded by stalagmites rising upward to touch their companions cascading from the ceiling. From somewhere water dripped, adding humidity to the stifling heat.

  “Magnificent,” Ryle said.

  “Isn’t it?” Denzloe said. “If not for the crabs, or the poison water, or the dark, or the stalactites crashing down, this’d make a fine place to live. Go around that pond to the ridge. The tube continues there. It’s where we found the markings.”

  “Kind of narrow down this way,” Azah said. Laryn ducked reflexively when they entered the tube which would not have been high enough for them to walk upright.

  “We’re deep in the hill now,” Denzloe said. “Like as not, the tubes lead right through to the other side where the mountain broke away, but Crow won’t let us go out there. Not safe. If you thought the beasts on our side were nasty, you should see the images we have of what lives in the north valley. Dinosaurs got nothing on them.”

  “Likely a by-product of the low gravity,” Laryn said. “Everything seems bigger on this planet.”

  The tube walls were smoother here and Denzloe increased their pace until they were scurrying along the tunnel at breakneck speed. Laryn gripped Azah’s arm when she followed Denzloe and Ryle to let the vehicle ride up partway along the curved wall.

  “This is too much fun,” she enthused. “Come on, Mediary, you have to admit this is awesome.”

  “I have just one question,” Laryn said, gritting her teeth. “Where are the crawlers you didn’t scoop out, Denzloe? And what would they do with us if we ran into them?”

  “That’s two questions,” Ryle said, sounding every bit as thrilled as Azah by this chase.

  “Slow down,” Denzloe warned. “Up ahead is where we’ll need to stop.”

  “Oh hell. How do you stop this thing?” Azah shouted, careening around a pile of rubble.

  “What?” Laryn cried, groping for a crossbar above them when the crawler lurched to a sudden halt.

  “You’re so excitable, Princess.” Azah rubbed a shoulder that had taken a knock. “I guess I should practice how to stop it slow, though.”

  “Not funny,” Laryn grumbled as they raised the crawler’s cap and climbed out. But she had caught the playful gleam in the woman’s eyes, devoid of the suspicion and challenge that usually formed her expression.

  Ryle was helping Toji unfold his long limbs from their vehicle, paying no attention to Denzloe who stood nearby, shifting his worried gaze from the Kalon to the black void of the tunnel leading further into the mountain. He gripped a short-barreled pistol and Laryn thought the finger playing over its trigger moved far too nervously.

  “What’s this place?” Azah said. “I can feel cooler air coming down this way.”

  “It’s as far as we’ve come,” Denzloe said. He started to climb up onto rocks piled close to the tunnel wall. “Here, look at this.”

  Laryn and Ryle followed him, leaving Azah scanning into the dark, her grip on her gun considerably steadier than Denzloe’s. It seemed to Laryn that things scuttled around in the dark that even their visors could not detect. She berated herself for her timidity and turned her attention to where Denzloe pointed, expecting cyphers scratched into the rock, or markings left here by the aliens that frightened these people so much. But instead, his lamp revealed long lines etched into the wall, le
ading to the ceiling where they gleamed like embedded metal.

  “What do you make of that?” Ryle said.

  “Never seen anything like it.” Laryn raised her arm to scan and record the etching. “Doesn’t seem natural. Those look like tool marks.”

  Toji tilted his head, squinting. “I don’t recognize it as anything made by Kalons. But I’m beginning to suspect that I know very little about my people.”

  “Jex?” Ryle said, furrowing his brow as he tried to receive a response from the distant AI. After a moment, he shook his head. “Jex isn’t getting this clearly. It suggests some sort of receiver, or maybe even something that’s causing our transmission issues.”

  “That sounds plausible,” Azah said from below. “But what if this is a proximity alert? Letting them know someone’s in the tubes? Can we stay together, please? Who knows what’s creeping around down here and I don’t mean the Br’ll.”

  “They’re Kalons when they’re in an environment like this,” Toji said. “Br’ll would not be able to survive—”

  “Can we go to zero decibels while sneaking up on aliens, please?” Azah snapped.

  Ryle jumped off the boulder. “Let’s move. Scanner is showing another open space ahead.”

  “You plan to go on?” Denzloe said. He peered up at the lines scratched into the rock. “Past this, whatever it is? Not knowing what’s down there?”

  Laryn had been about to ask something very similar, but was glad that he had spoken first when she saw the scornful look on Azah’s face.

  “Why did you think we came in here?” Azah said.

  They returned to their crawlers where Ryle reached for Laryn’s tool harness and tightened a few straps, then indicated that she should keep her gun in hand as they moved on. His directions were delivered in a tight, efficient set of movements, no doubt acquired during his military service, but she was trained to interpret body language. Denzloe was less sure of what he was told.

  “Can we—” he began and then squawked when Azah gripped his throat to cut off his words. She pushed him back and hissed a few sharp instructions while Ryle crouched to check Laryn’s boots.