by Chris Ward
She sat up and ran a hand along the wall. The diamonds, many as big as her hand, made the surfaces rough and sharp. She remembered now how the Evattlans had appeared to have grooves along their backs and legs, and now she understood why. They were as much carved by their environment as it was by them.
From farther down the tunnel came the sound of thundering feet. It was constant, as though the insects were dancing in some vast chamber rather than moving through the tunnels. Beth pulled herself up, at first feeling lethargic and stiff, then realizing the substance that had washed her down into the tunnels had hardened on her clothes into a thick crust that restricted movement. By banging her joints against protruding diamonds, she chipped enough of it away to regain mobility, even if she felt twice as heavy as before.
A transmitter on her belt flickered. She lifted it to her ear but heard only static. Perhaps Paul and Davar were searching for her. While the heroism of it all was happily storybook, Beth hoped they saw sense and headed back to the Matilda while they still could. Heroism only got people killed, and during their training it had been instilled into them that a man down should stay one man down, not ten. If you strayed, you were alone.
She’d lost her blaster somewhere during the fall. No sign of it nearby so she headed down the tunnel in the direction of the drumming, preferring to know her enemy’s location, and if it led her to a way out, all well and good.
The tunnel floor steepened, meandering down into the earth. Beth looked around for ways to the surface, but while she passed smaller side tunnels, they were darker and narrower, less inviting.
The noise from up ahead was becoming deafening. Beth took a couple of plugs from her belt to stuff her ears, but the noise still made her head ache. The tunnel lightened even more, the walls so thick with glittering diamonds that Beth began to feel dizzy.
She turned a corner and found herself at the edge of a huge cavern, facing a towering wall of pulsing, glowing eggs, each as tall as a man. Along the lower edge worked hundreds of Evattlans, rushing back and forth in a state of perfectly organized chaos. The top edge of the massive egg pile rose as new eggs appeared, while along the bottom workers busied themselves with the hatching eggs. As they revealed soft-bodied, pale larvae—still as large as Beth herself—others ferried them across the chamber to a mound of gathered moss and literally tossed them into its midst. Smaller, unhatched eggs were withdrawn and passed to larger carriers. These workers loomed over the eggs, their jaws distending to swallow the eggs, which then passed through a cavity into their back pouches, where they jostled until the worker was full. Then, with a load of five or six, the carriers rushed off, presumably to deliver them to the Shadowmen transports waiting above.
It was like a giant processing plant. It didn’t take long for Beth to realise the Evattlans were selecting their biggest, strongest young to keep, while sending the smaller and weaker off to the Shadowmen. Perhaps, in their hive-mind way, they were screwing their forced trade partners in the only way they could.
She crept closer, her curiosity overcoming the urge to run. Behind the wall of glowing, translucent eggs, something monstrous moved. The ground beneath her trembled with each shift of its immense weight, the air filling with a shimmering veil as clouds of minute diamonds shook loose from the cavern roof.
There was no way around, but tunnels led off in every direction. Beth backtracked, leaving the cavern behind, hoping to find a way around the egg wall. Not far back from the tunnel entrance, a small crawl space low to the ground led into an adjacent tunnel where Beth was able to climb back to her feet. For a while it appeared to be angling along the cavern’s edge then it abruptly cut away. Beth frowned, but having committed to follow it, she continued, even as it snaked down into the earth, darkening as the diamond deposits became fewer and fewer. Finally she was forced to use the light on her belt to illuminate the way. The tunnel became colder and danker, and Beth was sure she was about to reach a dead end.
Then, as quickly as it had narrowed, it opened again, throwing her out into a darkened cavern a fraction of the size of the larger one above, but one which felt wrong in a way she couldn’t determine. With an acute sense of fear telling her to show caution, she hung back by the tunnel entrance and switched off her light.
Without any visual aids, she had no choice but to squint into the gloom, the only light coming from occasional flickers as something shifted above, like a valve lifting and falling.
And she realized she wasn’t alone. Low to the ground, as black as the core of a dead moon, elongated creatures with segmented bodies and dozens of clicking legs moved through the dark. A tingle of fear ran across Beth’s back. They circled each other, rushing in to wrestle with pincers, jaws, and their front legs, throwing each other off, backing away, circling again. She tried to count how many there were: five, ten, a dozen; it was impossible to be sure because of their entwined bodies, their multitude of clacking, shifting legs.
Every few seconds one would break from the throng, rush at the valve-like space, attach to it for a moment then fall away as though thrown off. Others would rush forward, pulling it back into the fray. Occasionally, one would fall to the ground, not to rise again, and its body would be slowly shredded by the passing of hundreds of sharp feet.
Beth started to back away. The Evattlans would only attack if they felt threatened, but she had stumbled onto the most aggressive part of the ecology of all: the mating process.
No doubt the giant centipede-like creatures were duelling males, taking their turns to impregnate the massive female through a hole in the tunnel roof. And if they felt threatened, they’d turn on her.
And she was unarmed.
The cavern wall pressed against her back. She had backed up the wrong way. The tunnel entrance was several steps away to her right. She eased back toward it, but something sharp cut into her shoulder and she let out an involuntary wince.
A rare diamond this deep underground. Its protruding edge had cut right through her suit and into her skin.
The nearest of the centipedes turned, its head lifting off the ground, pincers clacking, mandibles flicking at the air.
With a squeal like a rusty gear mechanism, it rushed her.
Beth dived sideways as it slammed into the wall where she had been standing, pincers scything through the rock as though it were no harder than the moss mounds on the surface. Beth scrabbled for the tunnel entrance as it turned, rearing up onto its posterior segments, revealing a circular maw filled with razor-sharp teeth that glistened and shifted like the blades of a shredding machine.
Screaming, Beth dived sideways as it rushed her again. Her leg exploded with a lancing pain as the creature’s pincers lacerated her calf muscle. She rolled over, howling in fear and rage, but the creature screamed back at her, a harsh, scraping sound like metal on rock.
It rose again, pincers snapping at the air. Beth stared, helpless, as others rose up behind it. ‘Get away from me,’ Beth snarled. She reached for her belt, feeling for anything that might help her. She had chosen a lightweight utility belt for what she hoped was a simple reconnaissance mission. No blaster, no grenades, not even a grappling hook. Only a—
Light.
She switched it on, adjusting it to the brightest setting. Harlan5 had said the Evattlans had no eyes, but as she turned it on them they hissed and shrank back. They squirmed and squealed, but already the nearest were beginning to advance again, heads hung low.
She had one last chance to get away. Beth rolled toward the tunnel entrance, but as she tried to crawl, her injured leg refused to respond. She sprawled forward, hands scrabbling for a hold to pull her out of range.
Her fingers closed over a metal foot.
‘Cover your face,’ Harlan5 said.
Deafening cannon fire filled the air. Beth wrapped her hands around her head as rock debris rained down over her. The creatures were squealing, but the sound was barely audible over the roar of the collapsing cave roof.
Metal hands gripped her forearms,
pulling her up. ‘Hang on to me,’ the droid said, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Beth could barely speak as he broke into a bouncing run. ‘How did you find me?’ she gasped as she gripped her hands together, desperately hanging on.
‘I followed your trail,’ Harlan5 said. ‘And I employed a variety of sense-based instruments. Smell, rock vibration, audio. It took a while because I had to filter out all the background interference. And as you can imagine, there was a lot.’
‘I owe you big time,’ she said.
‘My pleasure,’ the droid said. ‘We’re not safe yet, though. We have to get out of here, and now you’ve stirred them up, that won’t be easy.’
‘Those things… they were mating with the queen, weren’t they?’
‘Yes. They’re born, and they die down here in the gloom. It was a useful trick you used back there. It wasn’t the light that disturbed them, but the tiny concentration of heat. To their senses it suggested fire.’
‘I got lucky.’
‘My programming tells me luck is something humans actually believe exists,’ Harlan5 said. ‘The very concept amuses me.’
‘I didn’t think you felt human feelings?’
‘It is a personal choice how I arrange my default settings,’ the robot said. ‘Now, shall we get out of here?’
‘Gladly.’
Harlan5 lifted his pace again as he sprinted through the tunnels, Beth clinging grimly to his back.
‘Where are we going?’
‘The quickest way back to the surface is through the roof of the queen’s cavern.’
‘Through the… roof?’
‘Yes. The ground is full of tunnels, but the main host approach from the cavern’s north or south. The roof tunnels simply provide ventilation.’
‘But that tunnel was massive. How are we going to get up there?’
‘We climb.’
‘Climb?’
‘Yes.’
Beth gulped. ‘As in, you and me?’
‘I’ll do the climbing. You just hold on. Don’t worry, you’ll be perfectly safe. Unless they spot us, of course.’
‘What then?’
‘Don’t think about it.’
‘I’m trying not to, but once it’s in there, it’s pretty invasive.’
‘My programming tells me I understand.’ Harlan immerged from a tunnel into the queen’s chamber and came to a stop. ‘Oh. Wrong end.’
‘What?’
‘Look.’
The light was different here. Beth’s vision seemed cloudy, and her eyes began to itch. In front of them stood an incredible mound of dark green moss, nearly reaching the cavern’s roof far overhead. Across the cavern floor hundreds of workers were coming and going, bringing more to replenish the supply.
‘Who’s eating all of—?’ Beth began, her severed question answered as a great shadow appeared, looming over the very peak of the mound, its mouth a black circle which could have swallowed the Matilda in a single bite. A mountain of moss tumbled inside. The maw chomped shut, expelling a wind so putrid Beth found herself gagging against Harlan5’s shoulder. A great rumble followed, like the processing machinery of a distant factory. Then the maw opened again, this time expelling a belch so loud it left Beth’s ears ringing.
‘How did it get so big?’ she shouted to Harlan5 yet heard only a whisper. His reply was entirely lost, so she tapped his shoulder until he turned to face her. This time, he just shrugged.
More workers were arriving all the time. As Beth watched, one stopped in its work and turned toward them. After a few seconds, it rose onto its back legs and lifted its pincers into the air, clacking them together like a pair of steak knives. Others, alerted by its changed manner, did the same.
A tingle ran down Beth’s back. ‘That doesn’t look good.’
‘Not at all,’ Harlan5 replied. ‘My programming suggests it has adopted a threatening gesture.’
‘Wow, your programming must be at genius-level,’ Beth said. ‘I thought you said they couldn’t detect us unless we moved.’
‘They have complex sensory systems. Smell, and an oscillator to detect vibrations. Plus, they have a central, autonomous nerve system. It’s possible that your scuffle with those males has been transmitted to the rest of the hive.’
‘Thanks for pointing that out.’
With a sudden wail, a band of workers rushed at them, legs moving spiderlike, so fast Beth couldn’t tell them apart. She was still staring when Harlan5 jerked her around, his hands reaching for the cavern wall.
The gap between themselves and the floor quickly widened as Harlan climbed far faster than any human could have managed. The Evattlans were still quicker. Beth, her feet bouncing about as she grimly held on to Harlan’s neck, shouted into his ear, ‘They’re gaining on us! Can’t you go any quicker?’
‘I’m at maximum speed to ensure a safe climb,’ the robot said. ‘Any faster and I risk a failed hold and therefore a fall.’
‘But they’re catching up!’
‘There is little likelihood we can outclimb them.’
‘Then what are we wasting time for?’
‘What else is there we could do?’
Beth wanted to scream, but it would help no one. As she jostled about, she tried to concentrate on the markings and words engraved on Harlan’s back, labeling several cavities and compartments. She shifted, pushing open one with her elbow.
‘What are you doing?’ Harlan5 asked.
‘Concern yourself with the climb. I’m doing what has to be done to get them off our backs.’
‘My programming suggests that’s not a wise decision.’
‘We’ll see.’
She shifted, hooking one arm farther around Harlan5’s neck so she could pull the object free from its fitting. It looked like a stick of dynamite but was labeled DISTRESS FLARE in red lettering. FOR OPERATION: PULL CORD.
It would blow them off the wall below, or at least disorientate them enough to make them fall back. Beth twisted the distress flare around in her fingers then lifted it to Harlan5’s neck so she could grip the pull-cord with the other hand. Harlan, still climbing, twisted to see, letting go with one hand and swinging Beth out over the chasm below.
‘Really not a good idea—’
She glanced down. The nearest Evattlans were a couple of holds away from her ankles. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘No choice.’
She pulled the cord. The tube jerked in her hand, the flare ejecting. Her aim was off, though. It struck the wall directly below her then bounced away, angling toward the cavern floor. A few feet out, a little booster kicked in and it raced away like a miniature rocket, red sparks flaring out of its rear.
‘Bad, bad idea. My programming really doesn’t agree with what you just did.’
‘Well, it didn’t work.’
‘Not for what you intended, no.’
Below her, the Evattlans pursuing them had stopped, every head turned to watch the flare. The red spark flew across the cavern, right into the base of the mountain of moss the queen was slowly munching her way through. The red light disappeared.
‘It bought us some time. Get climbing!’
‘It did more than that. Look.’
Tendrils of smoke appeared out of the bottom of the mound, drifting up into the air. Moments later they were followed by a red glow from deep inside the moss, one spreading quickly outward.
‘You just ignited it. Highly flammable, if you remember.’
The queen’s immense head appeared as she bellowed with rage. The cavern trembled, several of the climbing Evattlans falling loose. Harlan5 nearly lost his grip too, legs slipping free, holding on with just his fingertips.
On the cavern floor, the workers had stopped what they were doing and were running for the tunnels. Fleeing from the flames no doubt, leaving their queen to fight them. As Beth watched, the giant bug thrashed from side to side, shaking the cavern walls.
‘We’re in a bit of trouble,’ Harlan5 said. ‘Hold on.’
&n
bsp; He moved again, slowly reaching for handholds as the walls shuddered. Beth hung on grimly, looking back over her shoulder at the growing fire. The queen was now obscured by a wall of smoke, but down below several workers had reappeared. They ran to the flames, dropped into a crouch then disgorged what looked like a bellyful of liquid on to the fire. Then in a single movement they turned and fled again.
Beth watched them, transfixed, their gray and black bodies a blur as they ran for water then returned to empty their loads onto the fire in a gesture that was loyal if futile. The red glow of the flames was spreading, moving outwards as the pile collapsed in on itself, the moss becoming heavier and flatter as it burned.
The queen shifted, perhaps trying to turn. One massive leg kicked out, sending a heap of moss into a tunnel entrance. Something hidden in the dark ran out into the cavern, stopped, turning around in confusion.
A tall, lithe figure, nearly human but not quite.
Beth’s mouth fell open, a silent scream on her lips.
Davar.
Unable to find words, she patted Harlan on the shoulder. Davar must have come after her. And now he was stuck on the cavern floor with an army of water-carrying Evattlans while the food mountain went up in flames.
‘Harlan,’ she croaked at last. ‘We have to go back. Davar—’
The queen roared, lifting her head, slamming it against the cavern roof. Great slabs of porous rock broke free and came crashing down. Beth watched Davar dart for a tunnel entrance and dive inside as a huge stone lintel slammed into the earth where he had been standing.
‘Davar—’
Harlan’s fingers closed over her wrist, pulling her around. She felt something attach to her waist. The robot gave her a strange, almost human smile.
‘You might make it,’ Harlan5 said. ‘You’re a lot lighter than me.’
Then he dropped into space as the wall they’d been climbing collapsed. Beth fell with him, but then she jerked, arcing away. Harlan5 fell straight down, into a cloud of dust and smoke. Beth swung across the cavern wall, attached to the grappling wire Harlan5 had tied around her utility belt.
