Apex

by Robert Appleton

  Chapter Nineteen

  When the rock-hoppers finally arrived, shortly before sundown, Vaughn apprised them of everything that had happened, but couldn’t wait around to assist them. They’d have to prioritize the many tasks themselves: taking statements, transferring Tynedale to their local station for incarceration, retrieving the dead bodies from up north, and Joy’s and Melekhin’s from Avalon Key, not to mention the removal of the dead from Miramar, and contacting all those poor victims’ families. Honestly, he felt derelict in his duty, leaving a mess like this when he’d been present, if not intimately involved, in so much of its making. But he’d neglected Kyra and Cleeve for long enough.

  Having said his farewells to Jan and Stopper – brief but surprisingly painful, as he had so much he wanted to discuss with her, and they’d had so little time together lately – Vaughn fetched welding panels and an acetylene torch from the hangar. He flew his bird to Echo Outpost, crossing the equator in the pitch dark of EQ4, that period of night without moons or sun. He didn’t know how long he’d be away from Hesperidia this time. But as he flew through the whistling alien winds over starlit lakes as deep and mysterious as the firmament above, the idea of spending his life here imbued him with a yearning he could only liken to boyish homesickness. And why not? After all, what was he away from this place? Alienated. An anachronism. What if—and that was a big question for any lawman—what if the next time he returned here was the last?

  Cleeve, who said he was sick of feeling like a spare part, insisted on welding the new panels himself. He’d taken a gap-year apprenticeship as a levway engineer on a colony moon, and admitted he kinda missed the hands-on work. Vaughn indulged him, firing up the shuttle’s exterior lights, and quickly saw that the youngster knew what he was doing.

  The layout of the buildings around the compound hadn’t changed in the decades since Vaughn had last been here, yet he barely recognized them. They were all dilapidated now. Overgrown with weeds and those creeping vines with stems that resembled hairy spinal cords. Outside the old hangar, a rusty barbecue lay on its side in front of a picnic table and a couple of benches. Vaughn joined Kyra as she took a seat and scanned the haunted outpost.

  “I take it this isn’t in the brochure either,” she said.

  “It used to be the base of operations, back when it was just a handful of rangers. Jan lived here for a few years.”

  “So that explains it.”

  “Explains what?”

  “These hiding places you’ve picked. They’re Jan’s homes. You’re reconnecting with all the places you’ve lived with Jan. It’s kinda sweet really, like your family album on Hesperidia.”

  “The solid perimeter fence. That’s why I brought you here.”

  She tutted. “You don’t fool me, Omicron. I see what this place is to you, and what you’re like around Jan and Stopper. You could have taken us anywhere in the galaxy but you picked the only three sites you’ve thought of as home since…whenever. So this is your family album. This is you showing me you’ve moved on, and that I need to as well. Jan and Stopper, they’re your family now.”

  “I thought you didn’t do sentiment,” he said.

  “Hey, it’s your album. I’m just along for the reminiscence.”

  “You’re a pain in the proverbial. You know that.”

  “I’ve gotten too many people killed. I know that. And it’s left me with no choice – of course I’m going to testify. It’s the least I can do after what…God, I feel awful about Joy and Ricky. We just never expected…not in a million years…”

  Vaughn pressed a reassuring hand on her arm. “It isn’t over. These cartels have shown us the lengths they’re willing to go. So from now on, we trust no organization, no past haunts, no one we’ve ever met before. I’ll take you somewhere so far off the radar, trying to find you will be like chasing the gator.”

  “Uh, that’s not what that means, Vaughn.”

  “It isn’t?”

  She playfully shook her head. “You have some catching up to do, huh.”

  “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “How about Mom? After she’s ripped me a new one, and I tell her everything that’s happened, everything you’ve done, she’ll want to, you know…”

  “Rip me a new one?”

  Kyra laughed hard, then lifted his hand, pressed her palm against his, comparing the lengths of their fingers. “You’ll have to take that chance. But that’s never been your problem, has it?”

  “What? Taking chances?”

  “Just look where you’ve ended up,” she said. “On a world even the richest tourists clamor to spend a couple of weeks on. With a woman every guy I know would have the hots for. A professional rep second to no one alive. And you have the badge that says no one can take any of that away from you. All things considered, you haven’t exactly sat on your ass.”

  “I guess not. And you know how to massage a guy’s ego; I’ll give you that. Cleeve’s ears are burning.”

  “Oh, he doesn’t get it quite so sugar-coated. Speaking of which, you promised you’d tell me everything that happened, you know, with the creature, and the smugglers…and then with the killer. I hope he suffered.” When Vaughn indicated his reluctance – he was tired, and there were so many details to remember – she nagged him and pouted until he finally caved.

  Long after Cleeve had finished the welding, and Hesperidia was little more than a grain of light in the dark sea of space, Vaughn was still regaling them with his no-holds-barred account of the day’s travails. They hung on every word, and he marveled at how young they seemed.

  * * *

  Dawn wasn’t meant to be a sad time. When the new day broke, and the sun illuminated the far horizons, it was supposed to hold promise, hope, or at least the smell of a full cooked breakfast. But Jan ached this morning – a bittersweet ache, deep in her marrow and her heart – because today was one of those rare days on Hesperidia that took things from her instead. Vaughn had left the atmosphere in the early hours. His farewell message had been sweet; she’d replayed it several times before crying herself to sleep – not like her, but yesterday had been traumatic. And though he always came back to her, she knew that one of these days he wouldn’t. Risk was a patient creditor, but it always collected its due. One stray bullet or broken airlock…

  The day also took away her ambition for the top job. “It’s yours if you want it,” Kirsten Zeller relayed the remaining COVEX delegates’ unanimous sentiment, as she and Jan walked together toward the southeast gap in the tree-line. Stopper was with them. He rather liked the freckled frau’s enthusiasm for ball-tossing, which far outstripped Jan’s at this early hour.

  “I would,” answered Jan, “if I didn’t think anyone else was up to it. But the truth is I’m more of a nuclear option. My inclination is to turn the clock back on this whole enterprise, shrink it to a handful of safaris, and put the spotlight back on research. But that isn’t gonna happen with me in charge. I’d push too hard and wind up pleasing no one. Alien Safari needs a statesman, someone who can represent the biosphere and the research and the business end. It needs to be someone who’s willing to smash all the rules to save lives in an emergency – like killing tenax by firing the sat net at the freaking surface – wow! But someone who’s also comfortable collaborating with people of all stripes. In other words, David Carlisle’s your man.”

  “He was our second choice.”

  “Make him your only choice. And keep Tom Isherwood on as his deputy, for as long as he’ll stay.”

  “And what about you?”

  “Me?” Jan watched her long shadow jaunt across the glade. “I’ll be here to advise him. Job title: emeritus ranger, or something. As long as I get plenty of research time, I don’t mind babysitting the squibs in between.”

  Which led her to the final thing the day was set to take from them. Ruben shook Carlisle’s hand at the edge of the gap in the trees, thanking him for the help in loading his rover with supplies. They were out of sight of
the compound. Carlisle had flown his own shuttle out for this off-the-books delivery, away from prying eyes. Officially, Ruben would have to stand trial for his part in the smuggling operation. The OC Judiciary would decide his fate. Unofficially, it didn’t take more than an inkling of compassion and justice to see that he belonged here on Hesperidia, and that even the slightest chance of his being removed by force was unconscionable.

  To that end, Vaughn, Jan, Carlisle and Kirsten Zeller had consented to Ruben’s “disappearance”. He would have to live in isolation, alone with Flavia, at Old Jock’s cabin at Foxtrot Outpost. Jan had promised to visit him regularly, and she would take Stopper as a treat for Flavia. Either she or Carlisle would resupply him once a month, off the books, of course. And in return he would gift the Alien Safari enterprise his anonymous xenozoological research, which would be tireless and thorough, they all knew.

  Dr. Ruben Intaglio would not be listed as missing. That might raise too many questions, or even precipitate an official manhunt. Once word got out that a GenMod human was at large, and in a high-end tourist hotspot, the eyes of the galaxy would turn to Hesperidia with unwholesome curiosity. Instead, Jan and Carlisle would give statements to the effect that they personally saw said ranger wade into one of the prohibited swamps in Miramar forest and go under, never to be seen again. A sad end to a tragic life, but understandable, given the scrutiny he would otherwise have had to face.

  Yet, it was no less bittersweet to be here, now, for his banishment from humankind. Jan had never liked him, and probably never would. He’d poisoned her and tried to poison Vaughn. No one had forced him to do that; it was an over-zealous tactic to achieve what had been a foregone result. Tynedale would have seen to it that Ruben won the top job anyway. So yes, she did take it personally, and yes, she did resent the nausea and the depleted fuel cell and Flavia’s sanctioned bullying of Stopper, not to mention all the snide remarks and petty one-upmanship. You could excuse all of that by citing duress, as Vaughn and others had done, but Jan didn’t buy it. He might be a victim, even a tragic victim of manipulation, but no one had put a gun to his head and forced him to mick her drink, drain her engine, belittle her and Stopper at every turn, and try to poison Vaughn. No, one could be a victim and a nasty piece of work at the same time. Just as she could feel deep pity for him and dislike him for what he’d done to her.

  “Jane, I’m truly sorry for everything,” he said, but she couldn’t help looking for that twinkle of irony in his big, wounded eyes. He’d played his part too well these past few years. She would probably always have to keep him at arm’s length, even when she was his only visitor. That, too, added to the bittersweetness of this farewell. They were setting him free, but they were also returning him to his bubble. A much bigger, less confined one, but a lonely bubble nonetheless.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “You take care out there. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to message me. Encrypted, of course.”

  “Thank you. Thank you all.” Tears tracked the harsh lines of his cheekbones. Wiping them away wouldn’t have occurred to him; he wasn’t the type. “I know this is for the best. And I think it’s what Old Jock would have wanted.”

  They gave their silent assent.

  “Come on, Flavia. Come on, girl. It’s time.”

  The big husky rubbed against Stopper, and licked his face. For his part, he no longer objected to the youngster’s attentions, but he didn’t exactly reciprocate them either. In time, he might grow fond of Flavia, thought Jan, now that the wolf had been shorn of her obnoxious tendencies. But, like master like bitch, perhaps they were, and always would be, simply on a different wavelength to Jan and Stopper.

  The outcasts flew east into a shimmering heat haze where geothermal activity gave rise to a field of geysers. One of them spouted, casting a vaporous plume that caught the sunlight and drew a miniature rainbow. Ruben’s rover vanished behind it, and didn’t reappear.

  No sooner had the empty shuttles returned from Saint Jacques than they were refueled, filled with remnant tourists and sent aloft again, in an endless round trip relay, until Miramar was almost deserted. It was a day for leave-takings, some overdue and hostile, others tearful and with regret. Kirsten Zeller departed Hesperidia with an outpouring of emotion Jan hadn’t expected from a bureaucrat. But, like any other species, not all bureaucrats were the same, she noted as she returned the freckled frau’s hug and, with Stopper’s howl heightening the melodrama, waved goodbye to the COVEX delegation.

  Their walk back to the cabin was a lonely one. Apart from a few figures moving past the hospital windows, and someone sequentially opening the blinds in the HQ’s office windows, there wasn’t a sign of human life. Stopper had dropped his ball somewhere and deserted it, so she would have to fetch another one before their morning visit to the Pit Stop.

  But when she reached her front door, the day that had taken so much produced an unexpected surprise. Two, in fact. The first was a courier package leant against the door, which must have been delivered by a diligent staffer while she’d been at the landing zone. Its journey had been an incredibly long one from Ophir-2. It bore the official Omicron seal, and a label with the inscription ‘Aut viam inveniam aut faciam’, translated as ‘I will find a way or make one’. Vaughn’s Nisus Medal for Conspicuous Bravery!

  She would keep it unopened on the bedside table, each night picture him wearing it, whilst trying hard not to imagine the things he’d done to earn it.

  The second item puzzled her at first. She was certain she’d lost Vaughn’s diorthus tooth pendant somewhere at the tidal estuary, or even in the cave. Apparently not. Someone had to have found it nearby and returned it to her. But who in Miramar knew it belonged to Vaughn?

  Stopper sniffed at the ground, tail wagging, and seemed to follow a damp trail through the grass. It led from the door down to the river. Strange prints in the soil gave shallow, splayed patterns. If she wasn’t mistaken, it was a hexapod creature.

  The bay-dwellers had paid her a house call?

  She scanned the tree-line using multiple spectra, but could see no sign of the amphibians. Maybe they’d returned home. Then she recalled the mysterious darts, or arrows, that had been fired at tenax’s back, all aimed at the same vulnerable spot between its shoulders. Remarkable accuracy. The notion gave her goosebumps.

  How long have they been here, watching over us?

  Suddenly, in this one gift, the day’s horizons stretched, once again, beyond imagination. Hesperidia reminded her why she’d loved this place from the first moment she’d arrived. Sure, it took from you, sometimes painfully, but it gave so much more in return.

  “Come on, boy,” she said, “let’s go see what we can find.”

  Stopper barked his approval, and raced her to the river, where, a few feet under the surface, a host of new friends was waiting to greet them.

  About the Author

  Robert Appleton is an award-winning author of science fiction, steampunk, and historical fiction. Based in Lancashire, England, he has written over two dozen novels and novellas for various publishers, including Harlequin Carina Press. He also ghostwrites in several fiction genres. In his spare time he hikes, kayaks, and reads as many Victorian adventure novels as he can get his hands on.

  Website: https://www.robertappletonbooks.com

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/robertappleton

  Also available in this series, the adrenaline-fueled prequel to Alien Safari...

  BORDERLINE

  Alone. Double-crossed. Pursued across thousands of miles of alien desert on his beloved hoverbike, Finnegan is holding onto two things dearer than life itself: the priceless biotech prize he’s stolen, and the opportunity for revenge against the treacherous employer who left him for dead. He’s never met her, but he knows all about her family, the most ruthless criminal syndicate of the inner colonies.

  But when he finds a beautiful stranded woman badly wounded in the middle of nowhere, claiming to be Lori Malesseur, his employ
er, he has to make a choice. Either take her across the border and accept her offer of a huge reward, or leave her for dead. She claims she was on her way to warn him when she was ambushed and shot. But can she really be who she says she is?

  Trusting one’s enemy is not something either of them knows how to do, but when the stakes are this high, going it alone might not be an option. The race for survival is on in this high-octane action adventure that puts the pedal to the metal and doesn’t look back.

  A selection of standalone books set in the same universe as the Alien Safari series, also available as ebooks:

  Star Binder

  Sparks in Cosmic Dust

  Angel Six Echo

  Cyber Sparks