He felt uncertainty because he couldn't see them. Only the electric receptors that ran from his gill slits to his hips had told him that he neared them. And almost as soon as he realized they were only ten large one's lengths away and he had settled into a hiding place to watch, they stopped as though they knew he was there. Now they were on the move again. Why did they stop? Why did they resume climbing the mountain? He did not know, he could see only a few, far back in their column, and could hear nothing that they said.
The invisible ones, those he sensed were most dangerous, moved silently as well as invisibly. The few he could see, near the end of the column, made noise as they moved through the forest. He waited until they passed him, then rose and followed the sounds of the visible ones.
They were close, only a few hundred more meters to the spot where the Fairfax had detected what appeared to be a man. Schultz, still the first man in the column, was rounding an upthrusting of rock when he stopped. His nose crinkled as he sniffed the air. The pungent aroma of an unbathed body wafted to him. He slid his infra screen into place and carefully examined the mountainside to his front. All that showed in infra were tiny, fleeting specks that were probably small amphibians going about their business.
"Someone's near."
"Can you tell where?" Dornhofer asked.
Schultz raised his infra and sniffed again. The light breeze was coming from his front. The way the air seemed to eddy, he guessed the smell came from somewhere on the other side of the upcropping, where he couldn't see. "Wait, I'll check." He carefully picked his way downhill until the woodier trees that grew that high on the mountain blocked his view of the rocks. He sidled along until he was sure he was well beyond the end of the outcrop, then began climbing. Soon he smelled the pungent aroma again, mixed in with another, more fetid odor. He guessed whoever it was must be facing uphill and began circling to approach him from the side. In his right hand he carefully kept his blaster aimed where he looked. He used his left to flip his infra screen up and down as he examined the area in the visual and the infrared.
There! He saw the signature in infrared. He flipped his infra up and saw an emaciated man rising from a squat and adjusting trousers that were almost too ragged to bother with. A long knife hung from a scabbard on his belt. A mass of brown slopped down the mountainside behind him, soiled leaves scattered in and around the brown mass. Clearly he'd just found a survivor. He dropped the infra back into place and carefully looked around. No other signatures. The man picked up a hand weapon, looked around nervously, then began to climb the mountainside.
"Freeze right there," Schultz ordered.
The man froze, his weather-beaten face blanched at the words.
"Wh-Who, where are you?" He didn't move except for his head and panicky eyes as he searched for the source of Schultz's voice. The pistol dangled from his limp hand.
"I've got you in my blaster sights. Anyone else nearby?"
"N-No. I-I'm alone." The man was visibly quivering.
A wet stain that spread suddenly on the seat of his pants convinced Schultz the man was telling the truth.
"Put your weapon down by your feet, then lay on your face."
While the man complied, Schultz reported his discovery on the command net.
"Rabbit, join him," Bass ordered. "I'll be right there."
Ratliff left Schultz guarding the man as soon as he arrived and set his other men in positions uphill from him.
"Wh-Who are you?" the man asked in a quaking voice. "What's going on here? Why can't I see anybody?"
"Confederation Marines," Bass said [as] he arrived in time to hear the man's question. "Nobody sees us until we want them to. Who're you?"
"Th-They call me Sharpedge."
"Are you one of the scientists from Aquarius?"
"No—y-yes! I'm from Aquarius! I'm one of the scientists. Yes!"
"A scientist called ‘Sharpedge’? Why don't I believe that?" Bass said, eyeing the scabbard on the man's belt. He softly padded to Sharpedge, swiftly drew the knife, and stepped back out of reach before the man could move. "Nice blade, Sharpedge. What's a scientist doing with a knife like this? You don't look like a field biologist. Or a geologist." He tested the edge of the blade with his thumb; it was very sharp.
"Th-There are things out here, a man needs to defend himself." Sharpedge raised his head and looked about maniacally. Bass grunted.
"Wh-Where are you? If I can't see you, how do I know you aren't one of those things?"
"Do ‘those things’ speak Confederation English?"
"I—I don't know."
"Well," Bass said walking around to the front of the prone man, "do ‘those things’ look like this?" He squatted and raised his screens to show his face.
"People! We're saved!" Sharpedge scrabbled forward until his groping hands touched invisible clothing, and hugged Bass's knees. "You're really Marines! We're saved, we're saved," he burbled, before breaking down in tears.
Chapter 19
Whatever it was that had scared Sharpedge so badly, once he began trying to describe it to the Marines, he broke down into wild screaming and clutched Bass's legs even more tightly. Bass shook his head and gently disengaged Sharpedge's arms from around his legs. They weren't going to find out much about "those things" until the man calmed down. "Are there any other survivors?" he asked.
"Yes, yes," the emaciated man gasped. "Yes, about a dozen, there's George, Rhys, Lowboy, Minerva—"
" ‘About’ a dozen? Don't you know?" Schultz muttered.
"Yes, a dozen, a dozen," Sharpedge answered quickly, wiping tears from his cheeks.
"Where? How far?" Bass needed to know.
"Not far, no, not far! Just back up the slope! Not far! Georgie makes us come down here to shit 'cause he don't like us doin' it back in the cave."
"You're living in a cave?" Hyakowa asked.
"Yes, a big one. Just up the mountain."
Bass spoke into the command net. "Dr. Bynum, would you come up here with one of the corpsmen?" He turned back to Sharpedge. "Okay, so there's a dozen of you, you're living in a cave just up the mountain from here. And you're scientists?"
The prostrate man nodded vigorously.
"Just what kind of ‘science’ do you practice?" Bass asked
"I'm a chemical, er, a chemicarist, like, you know?"
Dr. Bynum, accompanied by a corpsman and the unbidden Lieutenant Snodgrass, who'd been trying all day for an excuse to get to the head of the column, came up and stood beside Bass. Briefly Bass explained what he knew about Sharpedge. "Can you check him out real quick, Doctor? He looks half dead. I'd like to know if he's capable of leading us to the rest of the survivors."
Sharpedge shied away when Bynum tried to touch him. Then he noticed Owen, perched precariously on the corpsman's medkit. The woo glowed a pinkish red and its huge eyes stared unblinking at Sharpedge, indicating intense curiosity. "What the hell is that?" Sharpedge shouted.
"That's Owen," Dr. Bynum replied. "Don't worry, he eats rocks. Now relax, I'm a doctor. How do you feel?" Sharpedge nodded that he was all right. Bynum produced her field diagnostic kit and began checking the man's vital signs, asking him questions while she read his pulse, temperature, respiration, blood pressure. "When's the last time you had a bath?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. Sharpedge just grinned, revealing yellowed, broken teeth. "That's what I thought," she said grimly.
Finished, she stood up and faced Bass. "He's a little malnourished, low on trace minerals, but good blood pressure, suffering from a mild bacterial diarrhea but otherwise in pretty good shape. What have you been eating?" she asked Sharpedge.
Sharpedge shrugged. "We got some food from Aquarius a couple of weeks ago, but until then we ate the slimies, whenever we could catch 'em, and there's fungus and stuff that grows back in the cave we kin eat, and little things like worms back in the pools, and some of them bugs with wings too—"
"This man is no scientist," Snodgrass interrupted. Bass silenced him with a nasty look.
"What are ‘slimies’?" Dr. Bynum asked.
"Oh, those big frogs like, with the long tongues. The tongues are really good."
"He means the ‘leslies.’ " Dean grimaced.
"Probably a good source of protein," Dr. Bynum said.
"Well, Mr. Sharpedge, do you feel like taking us to see your friends?" Bass asked.
"Yessir!"
"Hammer, you and Mr. Sharpedge here take the point."
Prodding Sharpedge forward with his foot, Schultz muttered, "Let's go." He'd try to stay upwind of the captive along the way.
In a salvaged jumpsuit that had belonged to a proctologist named Morgan, Rhys Apbac scrambled over the barricade, and once outside the cave, stretched luxuriously in the bright sunlight. The rations Cameron and the others had brought back from Aquarius Station, not to mention the clothing Rhys was wearing, had done wonders for the survivors' morale.
Far down the slope Rhys spotted movement. That pisspot, Sharpedge, he thought. He watched the figure scrambling up the rocky slope. As he got closer Rhys could see Sharpedge was carrying on a conversation with someone—but he was alone. "Finally lost it," he muttered and shook his head. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye, a shadow maybe, but it looked as though a portion of one of the boulders just behind Sharpedge had moved.
Now Sharpedge stopped and waved his arms vigorously. He shouted something but the wind carried the words away. Undaunted, Sharpedge continued the climb.
That movement again! There it was! Something had moved over the ground, Rhys was sure of it. His blood ran cold. Could the things camouflage themselves like that? Were they following that little shit directly to the hideout? Yes! He'd heard stories of animals on Old Earth that could change color to blend with their surroundings. He turned to shout out a warning when he spotted something else. About fifty meters behind Sharpedge a man walked out from behind a boulder. He was followed immediately by several others, walking in a staggered line with intervals between them; they were definitely human. As Rhys watched, three more emerged and continued walking up the slope behind Sharpedge.
"We're saved! We're saved!" Sharpedge was shouting, his voice thin and reedy on the wind, but the message was unmistakable. Rhys yelled for the others to come out of the cave. Cameron was the first to emerge. He stood silently beside Rhys as Sharpedge drew near.
Breathing heavily, Sharpedge covered the remaining distance in a few bounds. An idiotic grin on his face, he stood before Rhys, his chest heaving so hard he couldn't speak for a few moments so he gestured to his right. Schultz raised his infra screen, and his face eerily appeared beside Sharpedge. "Hi," he said. Cameron caught his breath when he saw the face. "Confederation Marines," he whispered, "they're wearing chameleons."
"Marines! The Marines have landed! We're saved!" Sharpedge gasped. The other Marines in the point element established a perimeter around the cave mouth, and in a few moments Bass and Staff Sergeant Hyakowa arrived, followed immediately by Dr. Bynum and Lieutenant Snodgrass, who had refused to return to his position near the rear of the column as Bass had told him to. Bass told the rest of the platoon to wait where they were and remain alert.
Snodgrass shouldered his way to where Bass and Hyakowa were standing. Suddenly he caught his breath and his heart skipped a beat. Shoving Bass rudely aside and grinning stupidly, he extended his hand to the pirate and said in a loud voice, "Dr. Morgan I presume?" This was the triumphant culmination of the lieutenant's plans and the herald of a bright future. This moment would go down in history! Snodgrass was on top of the universe at that instant and king of all he surveyed.
Snodgrass couldn't explain the ring he'd found back at the station—maybe Morgan had a brother along, Morgan was a common enough name—but he'd seen enough stills and vids to know that the man standing before him was the famous scientist. Most convincing was the fact that he was wearing a jumpsuit with the BHHEI logo over the right breast pocket and a name tape over the left that read in big black letters, MORGAN. Cameron had brought it back from Aquarius Station and given it to Rhys.
"Is that true? Are you Dr. Henry Morgan?" Bass asked.
Rhys looked at the lieutenant's outstretched hand and then at Bass. "Hell no," he replied, a touch of annoyance in his voice. "My name is Rhys and I'm a goddamn pirate. I demand to be arrested."
Bass reached out with one hand, seized Lieutenant Snodgrass by the collar and physically jerked him back, spun him around, and shoved him toward the rear of the column. "And stay out of my way—sir!" he said.
Rhys began jumping up and down and dancing with Lowboy, who had just come out of the cave. They were joined by the rest of the survivors. Minerva stood quietly beside Cameron, and he took her hand and held it in his own, as the others screamed and shouted with joy. Sharpedge laughed and nodded, smiling idiotically, and grinned at the Marines standing beside him.
"Quiet!" Bass shouted several times. "This man here tells us you were attacked by some kind of monsters. What kind—" This started another round of hysteria.
"Horrible..."
"Big like a man and slimy..."
"Snouts full of teeth..."
"They breathe fire!"
"No! No! They have sticks that shoot fire! I saw Johnny burned alive!"
"No! No! Some kind of liquid they spray from their noses and..."
"Shut up!" Cameron shouted. He shouted several more times and gradually the hubbub died away. "I'm George Cameron, Gunny, and I'm in charge here."
Bass cocked a curious eyebrow at being addressed as "Gunny," but kept quiet to let the man talk. It didn't necessarily mean anything that Cameron knew what to call him.
After all, some people outside the military were familiar with the Marine Corps rank structure and forms of address.
Lowboy snorted at Cameron's statement, but declined to say anything.
"We're all that's left of the Red 35 Crew pirate company," Cameron continued. "Over a hundred of us came here to raid this place, but somebody else came too and we were ambushed. We've been stranded about a year. The things that attacked us and killed the scientists before we arrived are intelligent, though they aren't human. I think they're amphibians. They have weapons that spray some sort of corrosive substance that dissolves human flesh and bone. They can be killed. I shot two of them. We don't know how many there are or where they come from. I think they know where we are, but for some reason they've left us alone. And now, Gunny, I formally request you arrest us and transport us to the nearest magistrate to stand trial for our crimes. But first, would you kindly get us the hell off this planet?"
During the short speech Hyakowa stared intently at Cameron. There was something, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the platoon sergeant had the uncanny feeling he'd seen this man somewhere before.
"You recognized my rank," Bass said matter-of-factly. He too felt there was something familiar about this man.
"Ol' Georgie knows a lot about military stuff," Rhys said. Since Cameron had returned from Aquarius with supplies, he'd come to respect their putative leader more and was no longer so quick to criticize him.
"We only ask that you get us off this stinking world as quickly as it's convenient, Sergeant," Cameron said, hoping he could change the subject.
"In time Mister...Cameron, did you say?" Bass replied. "First I want my medical team to examine your men—and women." Some of the pirates definitely were females, and the one clinging to Cameron's arm might not be too bad-looking if she was cleaned and fattened up a bit. "I think as the ground commander here I must have some legal authority to put you under restraint, but ultimately it's the captain of the CNSS Fairfax County, which is in orbit, who'll have to take responsibility for you." He turned to Dr. Bynum. "Lieutenant Commander, would you examine the, uh, survivors? Meanwhile, Mr. Rhys and Mr. Cameron, I want you two to tell Staff Sergeant Hyakowa and me everything you know about the, uh, ‘things’ that attacked you."
Bass led the pair to a large boulder and they squatted in its shade. He wo
uld have been glad to move inside the cave mouth for the damp breeze that was coming out from the interior, but it stank so badly that he decided to stay in the open air. After checking the platoon's perimeter security, Hyakowa joined them.
"This is Staff Sergeant Wang Hyakowa, third platoon's platoon sergeant," Bass said.
"Does that mean you're the platoon commander, Gunny? No officer?" Cameron asked. He cursed himself for opening his mouth.
Bass looked at Cameron a moment before replying. "Our officer was killed on another deployment," he answered. "Now, tell me what you know about the things that attacked you."
"Well," Cameron began, "they look like—I don't know," he shuddered, "like—"
"Like salamanders or somethin'," Rhys answered. "Only bigger, and their arms and legs are bigger too, but they don't have hands exactly. And they stand like men."
"They are a vicious and intelligent life-form," Cameron added. "They attack with neither warning nor provocation. They have weapons that spray their targets with some kind of acid that acts almost immediately. Dissolves flesh and bone. I think it dissipates quickly, though. And when they're shot with a blaster, they go up in a flash, burn themselves to a vapor."
"How many of them are there?" Hyakowa asked.
Cameron shook his head. "Lots, is all I can say."
"Where are they now?" Bass asked.
Again Cameron shrugged. "They're down in the swamp. I think they're some kind of amphibious life-form and they prefer to spend most of their time in damp, dark places. I figure we're high and dry here so that's one reason they haven't come for us, but I just don't know"
"Like the leslies?" Bass asked. "That is, those large, froglike amphibians, the things you've been feeding off of?"
Rhys laughed. "Hell no! Nothing like them."
"Are they indigenous?"
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