Crystal Venom

by Steve Wheeler

  Glint replied. ‘Well, I know that I’m not speaking for Marko, but I think that the rest of us have had enough surprises for one day.’

  Marko laughed. ‘Harry and Glint, sometimes you guys have no imagination!’

  Flint broke into the conversation in his little high-pitched voice. ‘That’s true, Marko. He gave it all to me.’

  ‘Sometimes you talk too much, Flint!’ Harry said.

  Half an hour later they were orbiting another of the cliff-dwelling groups of the Avians. Their lifter was once again hovering over what appeared to be a flat rock plate on top of the ridge line, hundreds of metres away from the settlement. Marko orbited the landing site and looked at it carefully — he had a feeling that something was wrong. He swung the Chrysops until he could see directly into the cockpit of the lifter, then activated his crew comms. He, along with everyone else, could also see the settlement of refugees hundreds of metres in the opposite direction.

  ‘Boss?’

  The major replied by the line-of-sight crew comms. ‘Yeah, mate?’

  ‘Who makes the decisions over the pick-up points?’

  Michael Longbow shrugged. ‘Rick. Why?’

  ‘Reckon there is something dodgy about that rock plate — the one that looks as if it is a stone disc, rather than a natural rock formation. What’s the bet there is something living and nasty under it?’

  A moment later the major replied. ‘Hold on, I’ll check. Nope, Rick is getting agitated; methinks this is turning out to be far more of a bad publicity deal for him than us. He says that that is where the lander is going and the refugees can go shaft themselves if they don’t board it there.’

  Marko swore silently then said, ‘In that case, I think we had better step well to one side. If there is something under that plate, it is going to be awfully hard to shoot at it with a lander a metre above it.’

  The major lifted both hands up for Marko to see. ‘We will do whatever we have to, Marko.’

  Marko, with Julie flying as his wingman, orbited in a pattern, looking for evidence that it was something other than just another outcropping of rock. As they searched further out, they started to find other similar, but smaller, rocks spread out for a hundred metres around.

  ‘Harry, Minh Pham. Slave to what my video is seeing. I think that it is an organism of some sort. Can you have a quick look around the area where the habitation is, and where the refugees are assembled?’

  Harry replied as he and Minh Pham swung their fliers in for a closer look. ‘On it. Don’t have much time though. The lander will be here in five minutes.’

  Fritz commented. ‘Wish we could ask the refugees. They have been on this moon for at least thirty-five standard years, so we are told. Rick can communicate with them, so I’m sure we could as well. After all, the languages are loaded into our helmet software.’

  ‘Yeah, you’re right, Fritz. Bit odd,’ Julie said.

  Before anyone else could comment, an angry Rick blasted into the conversation, almost yelling at them. ‘All biological crew! Just to remind you that I am in charge of this operation. Stick to the plan, my plan, and we will get along just fine. I know that you are using your crew comms which I cannot hear and that is starting to really piss me off. Rick out.’

  There was silence as they watched the lander slide down through the clouds to flare out, then hover directly over the centre of the ten-metre stone disc as its large hatchways opened to touch the ground. Marko waited for the refugees to move, but none did so. Flashing red lights started around the leading edges of the craft and the lander sounded its klaxons so loudly that each of the Basalt crew in their separate flying craft could plainly hear them.

  An instant later the ground around the lander moved as huge starfish-like arms rose over the top of the lander. It tried to lift off, but a separate smaller and faster tendril flashed out of the side of one of the starfish arms and neatly speared the blue intel unit as it tried to escape, pulling it down into the closing arms. The arms pushed down onto the lander’s top as what Rick had assumed was a rock surface split open. In the instant before Marko lost sight of the lander, spears of material were thrust into it with the whole mass becoming a ball, and great streams of rocket exhaust vented through the rapidly overlocking arms while the lander continued trying to break away.

  Julie, looking out one side of the Chrysops, recorded with dread fascination seeing other tendrils ripping the fuel feeds away from the lander’s engines, tearing them apart and pulling the pieces down into itself. As soon as the lander was completely enveloped, a foot-like appendage shot out from the base of the starfish-like creature, which was used to push-start the whole mass rolling down the ridge. The fifty-metre ball of creature and lander bounced off the side of the ridge to smash and tumble its way through the fungal masses. The gunships and missile carriers rolled and fired into it, having little effect, as the projectiles appeared to flash through the creature to detonate inside the already badly damaged lander. Eventually, the grey and black ball bounced off the shoreline of the nearest lake to impact with a huge splash and quickly sink from sight, taking numerous giant lily pads with it.

  Harry roared loudly. ‘Rick, you are a fuckwit sometimes! All that power and muscle has gone to your head!’

  Rick spat back at him from his dirigible. ‘Shut the hell up, Harry!’

  There was a silence for five minutes as they all continued to fly their patrols. The refugees had started to move back up the ridgeline to where the giant creature had been and were now waiting again.

  ‘Marko, this line is secure,’ Glint said. ‘I am fascinated by that creature! And no explosion from the lander? How could that be? Also did not appear to take all that much damage from Rick’s retaliatory fire. He broke the rules on that. His own rules, in fact. Do you think, much like those Games Board flying cameras that Sirius told us of when the electrics had been absorbed by the wasps, do you think that the same thing happened here?’

  Marko shook his head in wonder at what they had just seen. ‘Yeah, I am amazed as well, Glint. Would have loved to get a sample of that. Wonder what it eats normally? The growth is pushed flat, but does not appear to be dying. I mean, look around … if it had been like a starfish feeding on algae on the rocks there would be a trail of destruction leading to it, but I can’t see anything. And the fact it had living material all over its surface would suggest it is normally slow moving.’

  The major interrupted. ‘Guys. Heads up: we have another lander inbound.’

  ‘Hope like hell this one goes to plan, boss.’ Fritz chuckled. ‘Rick will nuke it otherwise.’

  ‘Yeah, let’s just hope he tells us if he is going to, Fritz.’

  The lander spiralled in from directly overhead to hover off the side of the ridge line as one hatch opened, allowing the refugees to walk on board. The hatch closed as it turned and then went vertical with everyone following in their ships. Once through the cloud cover, the 300-metre-long dirigible could be seen hanging overhead. The lander swung over the top of it and then hovered at one end with a wide walkway extending out to the lowering hatchway. They all watched the Games Board AV feeds as the few dozen refugees walked across, then down a deck into a large transparent walled lounge.

  The dirigible then started to climb and move westwards towards a mountain range fifty kilometres away, as another of Rick’s egg-shaped troop carriers came down through the atmosphere to hold station beside the dirigible, extending an air bridge into the lounge area. After ten minutes the air bridge was retracted after the refugees had all transferred and the brutish-looking carrier, with its weapons still deployed, swung astern of the airship then accelerated away towards the late afternoon sun.

  ‘Pick the nearest craft for hot refuelling, guys,’ the major said.

  Marko looked around to see the dirigible was probably the closest craft to him, so he flashed his ID across to it. It responded and a gantry swung the twin aerial pipes and drogues down towards him. He waited for them to stop moving, then slid up be
side the filling head, matching its speed before opening the filler ports and gently pushing them up against the drogues. As they met, both sets of valves opened and Marko carefully worked the power controls because the fuel made them gradually heavier with the liquid oxygen and hydrogen rapidly filling the tanks. As soon as they were full, the valves snapped shut and the drogues pulled out, allowing him to slide away as a gunship came up behind him to go through the same process.

  He dropped away checking where the rest of his mates were and taking care to avoid the jet exhausts of all the craft as he carefully flew to the front of the lifter. They climbed higher into the mountains where the cloud cover started to break. He could see the fungal vegetation giving way to more woody plants and low scruffy fern-like trees high up the hillsides. They flew over the terminal point of a large long valley where three spectacular waterfalls cascaded down to the fungal forest a kilometre below. Sheer rock walls towered on either side of them and winds started to buffet them.

  Marko heard the smile in Jasmine’s voice as she commented, ‘At last! This is much better: real flying for once.’

  He looked over his shoulder to see both Hangers high overhead, flying close to the stone walls at low speed, keeping pace with Rick’s dirigible.

  The gunships and missile carriers started to accelerate out in front of them. The rendezvous point was only seven kilometres further up the valley where the tall buttresses of the valley walls became vertical and rose kilometres above them to disappear into the high clouds. Marko started to feel a foreboding as the monitor, Jim, deployed himself even further.

  ‘Eyes sharp, Glint. Jim just went max with his deployment. Looks like a hell of a place for an ambush. The girls have moved out from the walls as well and are accelerating.’

  As if on cue, all the craft piloted by Basalt’s crew started to weave and vary their speed and height. Rick yelled at them. ‘All biologicals! If that is for camera effect, it is good. If not, it is a complete waste of time. This area is safe for us.’

  Harry almost questioned Rick, but left it alone. They flew in tight formation to stay within the valley walls above the pickup zone, a beautiful single tower with elegantly built stone buildings at its base. Nothing moved; no Avians appeared and as Julie, with Harry in support, found, all the heavy armoured shutters around the buildings were closed as well. The lander swept down to settle just outside the largest of the buildings. All its hatches were opened while it waited.

  Everyone’s crew comms suddenly activated, with the major saying, ‘Guys, we are in the shit. Get to cover as quickly as you can. Patrick is climbing further away from his geosynchronous orbit and is warning us that this moon is about to enter a thick interplanetary cloud of material which he describes as trillions of tiny pieces of iron. Julie, you saw caves in the surrounding hills. Give us the locations — I hope like hell I can get this lifter into one of them. Move it, people!’

  The coordinates started to show on their screens and a whole group of caves looked to be just big enough to fit the lifter. Marko, with Fritz following, flew down into the largest. Against the back walls of the cave he could see signs that the Avians knew about the threat, as there were habitations already built into the stone.

  He radioed the major. ‘Boss, this one I am in is big enough for you and probably the Hangers as well. You won’t be able to fly in though. Walk it in, or we could push you in maybe?’

  ‘I’ll walk it in. Just need some guidance is all. I see you all heading down and tucking yourselves away. Good.’

  An angry Rick blasted a message across all frequencies: ‘Biologicals, just what the fuck are you up to now? It is bad enough I have to deal with the feathered variety, but you smooth-skinned ones are just as bad, always scurrying off like small rodents doing something annoying. Get back out here, or find the Avians and then get back out here, as I have no time for these stupid games.’

  After a long pause, the major responded. ‘Rick, I have copied the messages and data from Patrick to you. Surely you, of all entities, must understand the threat posed by the iron dust?’

  Rick roared back at him. ‘There is no threat, Major! My greater self is well aware of it and we do not consider it an issue.’

  ‘Yeah, well I do, and I will look after the safety of my crew.’

  ‘Your continuing insubordination is duly noted!’ Rick shouted. ‘I also note that you have a small airborne unit which no doubt the eternal teenager, Fritz van Vinken, built. I warned you about communications not routed through me!’

  A second later a laser flashed across from the nearest gunship, destroying the crew comms link unit, which rained fragments of itself against the canopy of the descending lifter.

  A laughing Fritz came onto their comms link. ‘Shitfuck thinks I am that stupid, eh? Decoy worked a treat.’

  The major allowed himself a tiny smile. ‘Everyone just act dumb until this plays out, OK. Fritz, do you still have comms through that ancient UHF system you built so you can talk with Sirius? I presume that you warned her to take cover.’

  The big-headed little man was serious when he replied. ‘Yup, but she says that what Rick says is good enough for them, so they are staying up there, boss.’

  Michael groaned, wondering why people were always so stupid in the face of overwhelming evidence. ‘In that case, ask them to hard-shell everything they have edited to date, so when they come crashing down at least we should be able to recover it.’

  Fritz nodded and radioed the message. ‘Relayed. Asks is it really going to be that bad?’

  The major vigorously nodded his head. ‘Yes! The atmosphere is about to become amazingly electrical. That idiot Rick, for all his power, does not understand. In about twenty-five minutes there is going to be the electrical storm from hell. OK, guys, guide me back, will you, please?’

  The major brought the lifter down outside the cave just as Lilly and Jasmine flew the Hangers inside as well. He then rotated the lifter and unfolded the six large lifting and grabbing legs which, in conjunction with the antigravity, allowed him to gently walk the craft backwards into the cave. Harry stood out in front of the large machine, directing him with hand signals. He then lowered it down against the rock cave floor.

  ‘Right, we have about fifteen minutes to shut everything down and I mean everything,’ the major said. ‘Then I want everyone on board the lifter. And make damn sure that all your craft are earthed. The static electricity from this lot is going to be something special. Chop chop!’

  Marko and Glint climbed back into their Chrysops, turned everything off, then opened the electrical maintenance hatch and physically removed all the fuse and link modules. Around them, everyone else was doing the same. The monitor, Jim, even turned himself off. The last thing they did was to open a small hatch in the rear of the craft and run the earthing leads out. Glint held them against the bare rock floor of the cave as the inbuilt charges fired the hardened beryllium copper rods into the rock. They then walked towards the lifter, which was squatting like some giant mechanical version of a rock lobster, and climbed up into the airlock.

  As they entered, the major called out to Marko. ‘Mate, pressurise the rear compartment with breathable air, and go through the same sequence of shutting everything down. As everyone comes through the airlock, get them to take their primary helmets off and put their survival ones on. Oh, yeah, and as soon as one of the guys can help, you had better power down that arm of yours and also the ACEs.’

  ‘Shit! That serious? So how long?’ Marko exclaimed.

  ‘Just do it, Marko. Some twenty-seven standard hours before it is all over.’

  Over the next few minutes everyone arrived and powered down their internal bioware and electronic cognitive functions, which they found very amusing, initially, as most spoke different languages, except Lilly and Jasmine who had a common language, and Harry and Fritz who had another. Sign language and combat taps suddenly swung back to the fore. Fritz spent most of his time tapping out music beats as they were all he knew.<
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  The major waved to get everyone’s attention. He then signed that the last message from Basalt was that the storm was expected to last fourteen standard hours with a few hours lull, then another ten hours of even greater intensity.

  Marko looked closely at the little spider, Spike, clinging onto his arm. Recognising the shut-down switches that Topaz had installed on Spike, he shut the little fellow down. He looked across to see Harry reluctantly doing the same to Flint. Marko then signalled Glint to sit beside him and as he did so, he reached to find a precise point behind one of the fossa’s rear leg joints and pushed it. The ACE immediately froze, which allowed Marko to then open a side maintenance cover and totally shut him down as well. He sat crosslegged with Glint’s head in his lap and stroked it for a few minutes, before signing Harry to help lift his bulk up into one of the bunks that lined the crew quarters.

  Then he brought up his artificial arm’s settings in his head, and closed it down so the arm went completely dead. He tucked the strange-feeling hand into his belt as he walked forwards to the cockpit of the now totally silent machine and looked out over the beautiful valley, to see huge black clouds starting to roll across the sky. The lightning began relatively slowly, while the wind picked up and buffeted the dirigible as it started to climb, accompanied by its support craft and with an almost reluctant Games Board lander being the last one to climb.

  The sky grew darker still, then lightened as the larger iron meteorites started to enter the upper atmosphere, burning up as they went and creating surreal light displays through the clouds. They were all sure that many of the meteorites made it intact right to the ground, as the trails of something other than lightning were plain to see.

  The smaller, lighter fragments and dust settled down though the air as the molten iron core of the moon and its magnetosphere started to interact with the vastness of the neighbouring gas giant whose upper atmosphere also fed the electrical storm … they could see vast sheets of electrical activity glowing through the clouds with multiple colours being displayed like super-charged aurora. The sheets of lightning started to flash upwards as frequently as those coming down, striking the hapless dirigible again and again as it valiantly struggled to gain altitude. The violence intensified with iron-charged plasma bolts appearing and striking the gunships and the missile carriers, shorting out their controls and weapons’ safety mechanisms, resulting in unintentional unguided launches and weapon discharges.