Crystal Venom

by Steve Wheeler

  The Orbital was huge, discus-shaped, and had three pairs of space elevators connecting it to the planet far below. Everyone was pretty much going in opposite directions to explore the planet and rest and relax in their own ways. There were also several plans afoot for avoiding Sirius.

  Jan and Marko had decided to hire a housecraft and spend most of the time exploring a large chain of islands south of the planet’s equator. In that area it was effectively early autumn, so they had packed in anticipation of lots of time on the various beaches. The package they had brought included dive gear and, most importantly, fishing equipment. They would also be visiting Jake’s friends and hopefully flying ancient aircraft from a field halfway down the island chain, so they decided to take their ship suits. And, of course, Nail and Glint would be with them.

  Just before they left Basalt, Jan lined everyone up and gave them bioware boosters covering the current influenza bugs, colds, et cetera, and, more importantly, gave them the necessary gut augments so that they could digest the local food types easily. As a very young soldier, Marko had once skipped that step and paid for it dearly. Being on a break with violent diarrhoea and vomiting put a damper on things.

  The major would be spending time with Patrick, reviewing his astronomical research and other work for a presentation he was giving to the Haulers’ Astronomical Guild in a few weeks’ time, which was a big deal for him. He had gently asked them all to view it via links and everyone was quite happy to leave him to it, as he did not need them arriving at the venue and stealing his thunder. So they dropped the crew off and then took Basalt into a lower orbit above the planet, sufficiently far away from the Orbitals to be left in peace.

  Marko loved the elevators. They had spent time in the Orbital after transferring directly off Basalt and had been pretty much mobbed, with every man and his dog wanting a piece of them, so he, for one, was very happy to be shown to his and Jan’s cabin in the elevator, with its large panoramic window, as the two-day journey to the planet began. It was like a miniature cruise ship, and Marko and Jan even met one old lady at breakfast the next morning who had been riding elevators for many, many years. She said that as soon as she became totally familiar with one planet and its elevators she would move on to the next one. When Jan asked if this was her first ride on an elevator down to this planet, the old lady had replied that, no, she had already ridden on the other two, which were only hundreds of metres away. Jan mused later that it took all types to make the universe interesting.

  *

  The terminal at the elevator’s base was built into an equatorial island’s mountain, so it was a superb view coming down through the atmosphere. The place was so big and so full of people, equipment, cargo and shops that Jan and Marko did not see any other members of the crew leaving.

  They quickly marched into the first tourist shop they could find and bought large sunglasses, larger hats and voluminous shirts, which they were relieved to note were favoured by the locals, and hired a small carryall on which they piled their luggage — including the two suit containers — among which they hid Nail and Glint. They bought some additional local clothing, which was garish to say the least, changed into it and set about blending in with the crowd.

  It was going very well as they quietly moved towards the exits when a young man, walking past the carryall, nonchalantly picked up one of the smaller carrier bags without breaking stride and started to walk away from them. He would have easily got away scot-free had it not been for Glint, who had had his head under the bag, peeking out at the passing throngs of people. He erupted from the carryall, yelling at the thief, who looked back to see a fearsome vision of Glint with extended cooling frills for effect, accompanied by Nail, in hot pursuit. He screamed, then sprinted for the nearest exit still clutching the bag, forcing his way through the crowd as Glint and Nail slid through at knee level and easily caught up with him.

  Glint leapt high into the air to pounce and knock him down while Nail clutched at the young man’s head before he hit the floor. The thief pulled a short-bladed knife and slashed at Nail, but Glint, with demonic speed, seized the thief’s wrist with both of his hands, plucked the knife from him then passed it to his hind feet cum hands and snapped the knife in two, dropping the parts on the floor. Glint, who appeared really angry, rolled the young man over onto his back, sitting on his chest as Nail decided that a little impromptu interrogation was in order.

  ‘Hold him still, Glint. I want to see how far I can get a claw up his nose before I touch his brain. We really need Flint here. He is better equipped for interrogation.’

  The red-faced blubbering male started shaking and calling on the rapidly gathering crowd for assistance. Several of them taunted the thief, saying that he should know who had caught him and that he was getting everything he deserved. He looked up into Nail’s face, blubbering, ‘Who … who … who is Flint?’

  Nail hissed, then yawned widely centimetres away from the thief’s face. ‘So, you have a voice. I am Nail and my colleague here, who loves breaking crappy knives, is Glint. Flint is another of our family. He is a mechanical spider. Should I call him over? He enjoys forcing his arms into human’s ears to see what is inside. Tell you what, you tell us about your mates here in the arrivals lounge and I won’t pull out your eyes.’

  The man tried bravado. ‘Go fuck yourself, you creepy cat!’

  Glint leant close and yelled in his ear. ‘Bad, bad human!’

  Nail, in spite of his size, was very strong. He pressed his paws against the thief’s head and bent down to lick his tongue across the tightly closed eyes of the human. Marko was starting to feel almost sorry for the young man. Looking around, he noted that every one was recording the scene and looking over the top of the very large crowd he could see station security trying to force their way in to see what was happening for themselves. The man was screaming for Nail to stop, although Nail was not actually harming him, and started to blubber the names of the rest of his gang. The security and local police finally made it through the clapping, cheering crowd to find both Nail and Glint still sitting on the man, posing for photographs. Marko and Jan just leant against each other and laughed.

  Fifty minutes later, as they were leaving the local police station, being bid a fond farewell by the station’s chief, the gang’s lawyer approached them to say that she was going to have Marko and Jan charged with possession of dangerous animals. Jan was about to speak with the woman when Glint told her that they would handle it. The hybridised fossa and Jesus lizard ACE lifted Nail up until he was level with the woman’s face. They then took turns in telling her exactly what her lineage was, and explained that they were ranking military entities within the Administration, and that they had the right of certified sentient citizens under local law to do what they had done. At that stage, she started rapidly backing off but not before something was quietly said to her. The pompous, obviously badly educated woman went completely white, apologised profusely, started shaking, and actually ran away.

  Jan was giggling and asked, ‘Hey, Nail, what did you say to her?’

  Nail preened himself a little. ‘Not much, but she will steer well clear of every cat she ever sees again.’

  Jan looked closely at him. ‘Yeah, but you have not answered my question.’

  The cat shrugged. ‘I told her I was going to fuck every female cat I came across and that in every kitten I fathered I would imprint her DNA and that of each of her clients as enemies of my species. I then gave her a little scratch. Think she got the message. So, when are Glint and I going to be given the ability to breed?’

  Jan roared with laughter while Marko looked, and felt, shocked, wondering what kind of creatures he had let loose upon the universe. ‘Not today. Right, OK, enough of this subject. Let’s get the hell out of here before you pair get us into real trouble. How about I grab us a transport to take us out to the housecraft depot?’

  On the way, they gathered up a few extra food supplies because the local meats, cheeses and wines were h
ighly recommended by their driver. At one excellent shop called Gipsy Kitchen, Marko pulled out his money card and when his name came up the whole staff arrived to see them. Before they knew it the transport had been locked down and they, along with Sam, the driver, were treated to a hilarious few hours of impromptu entertainment, together with sampling the very best of the local foods and beverages.

  The produce and small goods were excellent, just as Sam had suggested, and they had their images taken with the proprietors, which were promptly printed. They were asked to sign the small poster-sized prints and were happy to do so. Nail left a set of paw prints and Glint, who as far as Marko was aware had never picked up a pen before, let alone used one, spent some time working up a flourishing signature. When he had finalised his mark and signed one of the posters the owner asked him if he could keep the test signatures. Glint looked at him quizzically and said that they were rubbish so he could do whatever he liked with them. Marko smiled, knowing that such a windfall would probably put the shop owner’s children through higher education and suspected that Glint knew that.

  Nail was surprisingly tolerant of the children, who all wanted to touch him and pet him. Jan walked in at one stage and quietly beckoned Marko over, pointing out into the corridor. Three little girls had dressed the cat in a doll’s costume, placed him in a pram and were wheeling him around the house, singing. The look they got from him as he was wheeled by said, ‘Say a word and I will scratch your eyes out.’ Glint was too busy sampling cheese and the local hard biscuits to notice what else was going on around him. When it came time to leave, they had a real battle trying to pay for anything.

  Someone must have rung ahead of them to the housecraft depot, as it was still open by the time they eventually arrived, very late. The manager herself showed them the housecraft they had hired and, after checking their licences, she signed the craft over to them, then she and Sam helped them load everything on board. It was a fairly simple machine some eighteen metres long by fifteen wide. Spacious with a high ceiling, two high-class lounges, a large galley and, in the centre, a beautifully appointed bedroom with an equally palatial bathroom set off it. It was perfect for a few weeks exploring, especially as it also had a marine runabout housed under the stern.

  Sam also proved rather difficult to pay, but eventually accepted, and Glint signed the back of his cab ID for him as Nail again grumbled about his lack of hands.

  With Jan at the controls, they lifted the housecraft on antigravity and slotted themselves into the local controller’s network, heading as far east as they could go before the local sun started to set into the sea. Jan controlled the flight, so Marko, unable to help himself, popped open the inspection hatches to see what was powering the craft. He found four industrial-grade gas turbines with a big antigravity unit attached to each one. Any two could lift the housecraft and power it along at a moderate speed, but the craft was not built for speed, it was built for comfort. After they had stopped and anchored, Jan cooked them a simple supper of fresh salads and cold meats, which they had with a lesser known, but excellent, local Chablis. One of the perks of getting to know the locals was that you always got the good food and booze, Jan mused, swirling the last of the bottle around in her glass.

  So began a very pleasant ten days of fishing, walking beaches, having barbecues on the fantail-shaped stern deck, listening to music, sleeping in each morning and making love as often as they felt like; they explored the islands, went to the local markets, fishing for and eating those fish that the onboard database said were safe, snorkelled in the shallows looking at the types of coral-like creatures and abundant life, used scuba and dived deep for some of the more interesting edible aquatic insects and just had fun. Nail absorbed every bit of information on every plant, insect, animal, bird and aquatic creature he could find. He sampled each, obviously building a database for Stephine.

  Glint spent time eating and making ammunition and then firing it at steadily greater and greater ranges. One afternoon while watching him firing at a piece of driftwood, when the housecraft was at anchor and rolling, Marko could actually see the projectile in flight. Everything else slowed down dramatically around him, but for the first time he perceived that he could speed up or take time at its normal pace. He experimented and discovered that his movements were normal to him, but were probably blindingly fast to anyone else. Tux, when Marko spoke to him about it, commented that he would become slightly faster, but that he was approaching his physical limit. He added that Marko’s thought processes would carry on getting quicker as the new neural pathways were completed. It did feel very strange though.

  Once a day, as required by the major, they checked in with Basalt, orbiting overhead. The rest of the crew were apparently having as much fun as Marko and Jan were, relaxing and doing the normal tourist things, except Fritz. He was further enhancing his considerable musical fame by rebuilding ancient pieces of sound equipment for some of the major bands on the planet and in payment was treated to numerous impromptu jam sessions, which was Fritz’s kind of heaven, although he said he was returning to Basalt early. Halfway through the leave period, Julie and Harry announced that they had signed a ten-year contract between them, which did not surprise anyone.

  When they were relatively close to the island that Jake had told them about, and fortunately the start of the weekend, Jan made contact with the ancient aircraft group. As Jake had promised, they were expected. They quietly flew around the islands towards the field. Glint called them up onto the top of the housecraft when three flying machines slowly flew above them, making a great amount of noise. It was a wonderful moment for Marko to actually see the extraordinary machines which he realised, at one stage of their ancestry, would have been at the very cutting edge of technology. Jan sped up the housecraft to match the aeroplanes’ speed and they were escorted the twelve kilometres to the aerodrome at a sedate two hundred and nine kilometres an hour … which they later learnt was the top speed of the aircraft.

  When they were five kilometres out from the aerodrome, their navigation system slaved to the local controller, who brought them onto the field and parked the housecraft beside the large buildings which made up one side of the facility. There were hundreds of aircraft of all types, all neatly stowed in the buildings, patiently waiting for their owners to fly them. Marko could not see one modern military craft among any of them, just the ancient fighters which had landed and were taxiing towards them. As they watched, the pilots gunned the engines and swung them around to face out over the apron towards the taxiways and the runways. They climbed down the side of the housecraft as it powered down, resting on its two main pontoons, and waited for the pilots. As the flyers strolled over, Jan and Marko could see that, like the pilot they’d seen eaten by whorls, they were wearing leather flying suits and goggles of the same vintage as the aircraft. The three introduced themselves and invited Marko, Jan and the ACEs to their clubrooms for a gin and tonic. Marko had no idea what that was, and when he looked at Jan, she just shrugged. Marko thought it an interesting concoction but graciously declined a second while Jan seemed to enjoy them.

  The rest of the day was spent with the cheerful group who called themselves the Aviators. Once Marko got close enough, he was pleasantly surprised by how brilliantly simple the aircraft really were. Each one had its own flight handling characteristics complete with how easy they were to take off and land, or not, what their rates of climb were, how woefully underpowered they were with the engines measured in horsepower. He had always thought that was a deliciously archaic measurement, and of how they had no avionics, no computer, no ejection seats, let alone antigravity, and that they ran the engines on actual petrol, which was created especially for them by another local group who made and raced another equally archaic group of huge-wheeled racing cars that had originated at the same time as their flying machines, around the time of the ancient human conflict known as the First World War. For all of that, they were both hugely impressed with them. Marko shook his head in wonder,
thinking about their ancestors actually using such aircraft, in battles as well.

  ‘These are wonderful machines, truly wonderful, and so simple, but beautifully made,’ Marko mused out loud, admiring the varnished plywood cockpit, hand-formed polished aluminium cowling and canvas-covered fuselage and wings on a Sopwith Camel. ‘Would be interesting to fly with the centre of gravity so far forwards.’

  A slightly built man who’d introduced himself as David Casement commented, ‘Not wrong there, Sergeant Major. Only those of us who have had extensive experience flying these beauties are allowed to take that one up. Hellish manoeuvrable in many ways, but a pig for take-offs and landings. Interesting machine in that it will turn to the right faster than to the left due to the engine torque and prop size. Fact is, to go left some of us prefer just to carry on going right!’

  Jan and Marko went up for a flight, separately, with one of the pilots sitting behind them at the controls in a machine called an FE2d. When Jan asked what the letters FE stood for they were told ‘Farman Experimental’. The pilot was a solidly-built individual sporting a huge moustache, a great bellowing laugh and the interesting name of Rangi Hohepa. His skin tone was darker than Marko’s and when asked of his ancestry, Rangi seemed to grow a few extra centimetres in height as he proudly claimed the heritage of the Maori people of New Zealand on Old Earth. Marko had known some Maori people in his home village as he was growing up. Wonderful, loyal people who adopted all the village kids as if they were their own. They fed them whenever they were in their homes, taught them, looked after them and were sufficiently caring to give a kid a kick up the bum if it was required.