Fragment

by Warren Fahy

Pairs of hendropods grabbed Thatcher. He had frozen stiff in panic, making their job far more difficult. They carried him across the hand-ladder bridge and finally dropped him unceremoniously into the basket.

  The door from the trunk of the tree exploded into a thousand pieces.

  Nell whirled as two six-foot-long spikes reached through the shattered door.

  A huge alpha spiger squeezed through onto the branch thirty feet behind her. It folded its spiked legs under it like a mantis shrimp as it scuttled forward, scanning her with swiftly moving multicolored eyes. Waves of orange, yellow, and pink light pulsed over waving stripes around its jaws.

  “Nell, hazar-do-us!” Hender shouted.

  “Come on, Nell!” Andy yelled.

  The spiger’s vertical jaws, three feet tall, opened wide and she could smell its sour breath as it raised its striped haunches up behind it.

  “Nell! Jump!”

  She turned and jumped, grabbing hold of the first rung. Hender was there to meet her, but she swung quite capably hand over hand as Hender backed away rapidly in front of her, using four hands and keeping one eye on the spiger at her back.

  The spiger advanced to the edge of the branch where she had jumped, smelling her, the eyes on its head and haunches locking on their target—then it used all six legs and its tail to hurl itself through the air after her.

  Hender grabbed Nell with his legs and two arms, pulling her forward just as the spiger’s spikes lashed down through the air inches behind her head.

  The spiger plummeted past the basket, snapping its jaws a few feet in front of Thatcher’s face, and fell with a piercing wail seven hundred feet to the sea below.

  Hender dropped Nell into the basket and jumped in behind her.

  The thick cable of rope had apparently been woven from some kind of pale green fiber. The basket was made of the same fiber laced through large skeletal plates from some creature, perhaps the mega-mantis. It creaked now and stretched, dangerously overloaded.

  “OK!” Hender said.

  The other hendropods warbled a musical cacophony as the two remaining spigers peered over the edge of the branch, trying to gauge the distance to the basket that dangled like a feast before them.

  “We gotta go!” Zero shouted at Hender.

  But Hender stood motionless, looking upward. “OK, dudes!” he yelled. Hender reached an arm two meters up and pulled a rope that unlatched the pulley; the basket descended as the huge wheel turned.

  The hendropods, normally solitary, clung to each other in the center of the basket, watching the spigers above.

  The island that had been their home and world forever disappeared into darkness as they descended.

  Geoffrey and Nell found themselves lying next to each other on their stomachs, looking over the edge of the basket at the sea as they sank alongside the ancient cliff. Geoffrey waved a glass jar of glowing bugs over the side.

  “Impressive moves back there, Duckworth. I thought we might lose you.”

  “Thanks. I always was a tomboy.”

  “In case we don’t make it, I just wanted to say…” He looked at her urgently, dropping all sarcasm. “There’s nothing sexier than a brilliant woman—even if she has a funny last name.”

  “You mean I’m not beautiful?” she said.

  “Maybe that came out wrong…”

  She laughed and kissed him quickly on the lips as they plunged down toward the swirling sea. “In case we don’t make it,” she told him.

  9:17 P.M.

  The crew of the Trident spotted the faint light sinking down the cliff and Captain Sol unlatched the winch to let the Zodiac out.

  Two crewmen paddled the Zodiac as the winch-line unspooled.

  “It could work, Captain,” Cynthea said, standing next to him at the stern of the Trident.

  “Yes, it could work, Cynthea.” Captain Sol sighed as the deck heaved and some big swells moved under the ship.

  Second mate Samir El-Ashwah and crewman Winger paddled the Zodiac.

  “So far so good,” Samir said. “Steady, mate.”

  Winger saw the Trident rolling on a swell behind them. “Looks like the Navy’s kicking up some wake on the way out.”

  “Bloody great,” Samir said.

  Heavy seas rolled toward them, submerging the towline and buffeting the Zodiac.

  Samir pointed above. “There! Ya see ’em?”

  A small green smudge of light was slowly descending the cliff.

  “Yeah!” Winger exclaimed, narrowing his eyes against the saltwater spray of the buffeting waves.

  Samir switched on a flashlight and wedged it in the bottom of the boat, lighting up the inside of the Zodiac like a lampshade.

  9:19 P.M.

  “There they are.” Nell pointed at the glowing raft bobbing hundreds of feet below. “See ’em?”

  “Yeah!” Zero said.

  As they dropped the final hundred feet, it looked as if they were perfectly aligned with the Zodiac. Too perfect: the basket halted directly over the Zodiac so that they couldn’t see it just below them.

  The swells lifted the Zodiac and slammed it against the bottom of the basket. “Oh, fuck!” Winger yelped.

  The wave subsided. Samir and Winger frantically paddled the Zodiac out from under the basket, which was now quivering ominously.

  Vibrations rolled down the long cable, which throbbed like a bass string.

  Pieces of rock sheared from the cliff and sliced into the sea: a terrific quake was rumbling through the island.

  “This island’s exploding!” Andy shouted.

  “Calm down, Andy,” Nell said, reaching out to squeeze his ankle. Copepod yapped frantically.

  The basket tipped and swung as the falling rocks tumbled into the water all around them.

  The hendropods cringed as seawater from the incoming waves splashed over the basket.

  “Jump in the Zodiac when the basket swings that way,” Geoffrey instructed.

  “Are you kidding?” Andy exclaimed.

  The moment arrived and, when Andy didn’t move, Geoffrey pushed him out of the basket. He landed, screaming, in the Zodiac. Geoffrey turned to the hendropods, pointing. “Jump, OK?”

  9:20 P.M.

  “Trident, what’s the status on the engines?” demanded the radio transmission from the Enterprise.

  “Uh,” First Mate Warburton answered the hail from the bridge. “We think we’ve almost got the magnetometers synched up, Enterprise.”

  He grimaced at Marcello, who was muttering prayers over his St. Christopher’s medal.

  9:21 P.M.

  As the basket swung sickeningly to and fro, Geoffrey and Nell tossed the cases into the Zodiac.

  Zero jumped into the raft, and Copepod followed at the urging of Andy. The little dog seemed happy to see the familiar raft. The hendropods, Nell, and Geoffrey were the last ones left in the wobbling basket.

  “Here comes another set,” Samir said, looking over his shoulder. “Duck!”

  Everyone in the raft ducked as another giant wave slammed them into the bottom of the swinging basket.

  The basket moved to one side as the next wave lifted the Zodiac. One of the stays of the basket snapped.

  Everything except for Nell and Geoffrey rolled out of the basket and into the boat.

  “Allahu Akbar!” Samir exclaimed as all five hendropods tumbled into the raft around him. One of them clung to his legs with three hands.

  Nell and Geoffrey clung to the basket as it splashed into the cold black water.

  The basket’s heavy cable began plunging down around them in giant folds that crashed into the sea.

  “We made it,” Nell gasped, treading the icy water beside Geoffrey as the basket submerged, disappearing within seconds from view.

  “Not yet,” Geoffrey warned. “Let’s go! Swim, Nell!”

  They swam hard for the Zodiac as great elbows of cable smashed into the water behind them.

  Suddenly they found themselves on top of a furry mass floating in t
he water.

  “Keep going!” Geoffrey yelled.

  Nell saw the mouth of the giant spiger lolling open underneath her like a face in a nightmare. To her horror, her foot grazed its lower jaw, but it moved loosely as she shoved off in panic. The spiger’s spiked arms reacted slowly, rising from the water on either side of them, grasping at the two scientists as they swam for the raft.

  “Hurry!” Andy yelled.

  “Come on, girl!” Zero urged.

  Nell swam forward in the chilling water with a renewed burst of adrenaline, passing Geoffrey. She crossed the last ten yards and grabbed the edge rail of the Zodiac, and she reached back to snag Geoffrey’s hand.

  “Hit it!” Samir shouted at the Trident eighty yards away.

  Captain Sol engaged the winch to reel in the floundering Zodiac at top speed.

  “Look!” yelled Andy.

  “Oh noooo!” Hender cried.

  A giant branch of Hender’s tree plunged down the face of the cliff: two glowing creatures clung to its side.

  With one hand towing Geoffrey, Nell was losing her grip on the Zodiac against the dragging force of the winch. Andy reached down to grab her wrist, but too late. The edge rail ripped from her hand and she and Geoffrey slipped behind in the churning water as the Zodiac pulled away.

  “Keep swimming,” yelled Geoffrey.

  Nell turned to see the massive branch crash into the sea behind them. The heaving shockwave lifted Nell and Geoffrey and threw them into the raft, pushing it closer to the Trident.

  The hendropods shrieked and retreated as the wave crashed over the boat and swept Hender over the side.

  Hender screamed a piercing peal of anguish and immediately sank up to his neck, reaching his arms out of the seawater in all directions.

  The wave deposited one of the glowing spigers that had held onto the branch right behind him in the water.

  The spiger seemed stunned from the fall, floating on its side.

  “Hender!” Andy shouted.

  “Andeeeeee!” Hender squealed.

  “Cut the winch!” Samir yelled.

  The other hendropods emitted a chatter of quick high screams at Hender and watched in terror, unable to help.

  To everyone’s surprise, Andy dove in.

  9:34 P.M.

  The hendropods sent up a chorus of shrieking whistles in the distance as Captain Sol disengaged the winch.

  “What just happened?” Cynthea asked.

  “I don’t know, but it wasn’t good!” Captain Sol growled.

  9:34 P.M.

  Andy’s glasses flew off when he hit the water, but he could see the sinking glow of Hender through the murk and he dove down to grab his arm and pull him up. Hender gave a whistling gasp as his head emerged from the ocean. Andy spun Hender’s body around and began kicking to push him toward the raft, paddling with his size-eleven shoes as hard as he could.

  “Reach, Hender, reach!” Andy yelled, and spluttered seawater.

  Hender wheezed and shuddered.

  “You’re close, come on, Hender!” Andy heard Nell shout, and it inspired the marine biologist to kick harder.

  Nell saw the floating spiger convulse on the surface of the water behind Andy. “Reach, Hender!” she implored.

  The hendropods shrieked and cowered at the bow, retreating from the spiger and the sloshing water in the raft.

  The humans reached out over the edge of the raft and Hender stretched out one of his long, trembling upper arms.

  Andy pushed Hender forward with one hand pressed against the thick silken fur of his back as he stroked the water with his other.

  Nell dove in and grasped Hender’s trembling hand, while Geoffrey grabbed her foot and held on—but her Adidas shoe slipped off, so he grabbed her bare foot, and then all the humans grabbed Geoffrey around the waist and pulled to keep him in the raft.

  Hender was torn from Andy’s grasp as the humans grabbed hold of his various hands. As soon as they hoisted him out of the water his entire trembling body twisted and shook the water from his fur violently. Andy treaded water for a moment, trying to catch his breath, then a wave crashed against the side of his head and he choked, coughing water. He popped his head up, disoriented, and turned to see a fuzzy patch of glowing colors moving toward him with a spreading blackness at its center.

  Spasms contorted the stunned spiger as it kicked its legs and raised its head out of the water. “ANDY!” screamed Nell, as she and the hendros comforted Hender. Flexing open all four jaws in a final convulsion, the spiger saw Andy now.

  “Turn around, swim, fast!”

  Confused, Andy swam toward the spiger.

  The other hendros all moved from the bow and waded into the water sloshing inside the raft. In the center of the Zodiac, they clung to each other and one reached out a long arm toward Andy like the boom of a crane.

  “Turn around, Andy!” Zero hollered. “Damn, it—turn around!”

  Suddenly, Andy realized the blurry glow was not Hender.

  Andy swiveled in the water.

  The hendro’s hand dangled in front of his face.

  He grabbed it.

  9:35 P.M.

  “Hit it!” Captain Sol heard Samir shout from the aft deck, and he engaged the winch at top speed as he yelled over his shoulder at the bridge, “Weigh anchor, Carl! Half-speed now!”

  Warburton exhaled and nodded at Marcello as he picked up the radio, fingering it for a moment before speaking in his most casual airline pilot voice: “Enterprise, we fixed the problem and are now under way. Over?”

  “Good news, Trident,” boomed the response. “God speed.” Warburton gave Marcello a low-five. “Thank you, Enterprise. God speed to you as well. See you at Pearl!”

  9:38 P.M.

  The hendropods and humans scrambled from the half-swamped Zodiac onto the aft deck as the Trident picked up speed.

  Everyone aboard was dumbstruck as their new passengers came aboard.

  Cynthea videoed the event with her camcorder, her hand steady as rock as she reeled in the historic moment and came face-to-face with a drenched but determined Zero, who was videoing her.

  Geoffrey and Nell were the last ones remaining in the Zodiac. With the rest of the crew’s attention on the hendropods, she took a deep breath and said, “There’s almost nothing sexier than a man who knows the right thing to say at a very scary moment.”

  Drenched and weary, he grinned happily, handing the last case up to a waiting Thatcher. As she helped him up to the deck he smiled at her, and then frowned: “Almost?”

  The shivering hendropods approached the humans repeating “Thank you!” to everyone they met. Copepod barked as he greeted the crew, who were too dazed by the hendros to be amazed by the miracle of his resurrection.

  “Madone,” Marcello breathed as he stared out the aft window of the bridge at the scene, and he crossed himself hastily.

  “They need showers,” Nell told the captain. “Saltwater isn’t good for them.”

  “Good, get them below!” the captain said. “Let’s get them out of sight, damn it, until we figure out what to do!”

  Nell and Geoffrey quickly led the hendropods below.

  “I’m going to get Copey something to eat, Captain.”

  “Good God, Andy, that damn dog made it! Will wonders never cease—yes, carry on, lad, get the little beast something to eat!”

  “You are the captain, I presume?” Thatcher asked. He was hugging one of the aluminum cases they had brought aboard to his chest.

  “Yes, sir, and you are?”

  “Thatcher Redmond. I’m a scientist. Where should we store these cases?”

  Captain Sol saw four others laid out on the poop deck. He frowned. “What’s inside them?”

  “Just artifacts and belongings of the hendropods.”

  “Hendro—?”

  “Our guests.” Thatcher smiled.

  “Oh, I see, yes! Samir, can you help Mr. Redmond stow these cases? Use one of the empty cabins in the starboard pontoon.”r />
  “Right, Captain. This way, Mr. Redmond. I’ll take a couple of those,” said Samir.

  Cynthea clutched Zero’s hand. “Tell me you have hours and hours of footage, Zero,” she crooned.

  Zero tapped the NASA headband camera on the temple, turning it off, and placed it on her head like a tiara. Then he dropped a Ziploc bag full of memory sticks from one of his pockets into her hands. “Cynthea, I am your lord, master, and God Almighty, for all eternity. Get used to it, doll-face!” With a knife-edged Gary Cooper grin, he hauled off and gave Cynthea a mashing kiss, complete with a dip.

  When he let her up for air she seemed ten years younger. “Now, now,” she purred, shaking a coy finger at him.

  “A deal’s a deal,” he growled in her ear and she giggled in delight.

  9:41 P.M.

  Nell told Hender to follow her and he told the others. They sprang on two legs down the stairs inside the central hull of the Trident, their heads bobbing and stretching and twisting as their eyes pointed in all directions.

  “Where are we going?” Geoffrey asked, bringing up the rear.

  “To the gym.”

  “There’s a gym?”

  “They wanted us all to have ripped abs. You didn’t watch the show?”

  “No.”

  “Thank God. OK, Hender. In here.” Nell motioned them into the ship’s gymnasium, a wide white room lined with gleaming new exercise equipment. An alcove at the far side contained six shower stalls and a separate locker area with benches.

  Nell led them between the shower stalls and opened the last one on the right. She reached in and turned the water on.

  “No water!” Hender said.

  “OK water. Not salt. See?” She reached in and tasted it. “OK?”

  Hender reached out gingerly and touched it. “OK!”

  “You can go in—”

  Before she could finish, Hender walked into the stall, and then he rippled with a rainbow shiver as he felt the water turn warm. “Oooo.”

  “OK?”