Stowaway (Redleg in Space Book 1)

by Z D Dean

  ∆∆∆

  Samix, proud of herself for putting Zade in his place about his insolence, disconnected the rope Axis used to get down to the planet, closed the ramp, and headed to the galley. With the ship hovering above the planet, she would not be needed on the command deck until Axis and Zade returned to the ship. Mur would continue monitoring the team’s progress and running further tests on the planet, meaning that she could relax for a while.

  As she headed to the galley, a ship alert popped into her field of view. Mur had finished analyzing the crust vibrations and noted that, unlike standard tectonic activity which propagate from a single point, these vibrations seemed to be moving down fault lines. Excited that she may have found a unique planet whose tectonics were different from any other known rocky planet, Samix ensured that the data was uploaded to the data drone. Samix walked into the galley where Jorloss was already eating.

  “So, what are you going to do with the couple hours of downtime we have?” She asked.

  “I’m going to keep studying Zade’s biology,” Jorloss answered. “His body has taken to the nanite modifications better than any species I have ever seen.”

  “Speaking of Zade,” Samix chuckled, “you should have seen his face when he realized his long hike was because of his smart mouth.”

  “Oh… I meant to tell you. Zade and I were talking about that little incident just before he went down for his last nanite treatment. Just as he went to sleep, he was trying to argue a point. I decided to take a look at the data. I pulled up the message and there seemed to be some kind of translation error. It wasn’t an insult at all, I think it was a compliment,” Jorloss said, just before heading back to the medical bay.

  As Jorloss headed out of the galley, Samix pulled up the statement she remembered Zade saying. Sure enough, with the corrected translation, it was a compliment, albeit a compliment wrapped in dark, dirty, troop humor. Samix contemplated what she had done. She had sent this human, the one who saved both her and Jorloss from certain death, out on a romp through the jungle of a dangerous planet. Samix could only sit and think about the best way to resolve this issue. She was the top graduate from the Academe and the only candidate to make it into the exploration branch. Based on her stellar performance during shipside training, she was hand selected as one of three captains to command the Unity’s experimental ships, and she had let a perceived slight cloud her judgement.

  She vowed then never to let personal issues ever play into her decision making again. The exploration corps, the crew, and her reputation deserved better from her.

  ∆∆∆

  Zade led the group to the edge of the clearing, constantly checking the observers’ feeds as he went. The six observers would maintain a 500 meter perimeter around the landing party which meant that they would be moving as the group did. With one final check, Zade unsheathed the machete and began clearing an entrance into the jungle. He hoped that once the group got passed the edge of the clearing the underbrush would thin, allowing quicker movement to the objective. To his dismay, the underbrush was as thick in the depths of the jungle as it was on the edge.

  The progress was slow as Zade had to clear a path for the team. Axis lacked both the physical capabilities and mental toughness to perform any duration of manual labor. After only 15 feet or so Axis had decided to let Zade do the work, sheathed his implement and climbed on top of one of the pack mules to ride the rest of the way.

  As Zade was clearing a path, sweating in the harsh climate around him, Axis rambled about anything that popped into his mind; most of his stories were about his home world and his species, who called themselves settlers. They evolved on a planet which was far too small to support a large population. Because of this, the species evolved to use as little energy as possible and to survive in the harshest conditions. As their home planet became more crowded and stressed, the settlers began genetically modifying their population to reduce demand. The first stage of modifications reduced their size substantially, which reduced the amount of resources they required. Although the modification prolonged the life of the planet, it wasn’t enough, and the settlers had to resort to more extreme changes. In a second attempt to prolong the survival of the species, the settlers changed their genetic code, so their eyes were replaced by infrared sensing pits. The pits still allowed them to sense predators, but by removing their optic equipment they reduced their energy demands by 15 percent. Realizing that the planet was still dying, the settlers began searching for answers away from their home world. The settlers developed terraforming technology so they could colonize the asteroids surrounding their planet; the exodus that gave rise to the new name of the species. As a final attempt to save the species, one final genetic modification was made in the group that was bred to colonize the asteroids. This generation would have the systems to gain nutrition directly from the minerals and ores of their planet, which was the purpose of the strange mouth that Zade had noticed. As the settlers ate the local ores, their skin changed color, giving them natural adaptive camouflage, a unintended benefit of their plight.

  Upon arrival to the newly terraformed asteroids, the genetic modifications paid off, as the atmosphere and ecology were still too weak to support the settlers’ earlier bodies. Understanding that they were running out of time, the new settlers began to tinker with the terraforming equipment to expedite the process of creating usable land. In addition to learning the inner workings of terraforming, the Settlers had hundreds of different asteroids being terraformed at the same time. This allowed them to refine the process, increase the number of applicable planets, and increase the success rate of the terraforming process from 10 percent to nearly 99 percent. By keeping the terraforming techniques and methods secret, this once doomed, nearly extinct species became one of the most powerful factions in the Unity, providing services to any species looking to expand their habitable region, for the right price.

  Luckily, as the team crept through the jungle, Axis babbling away through the communicator, Zade didn’t notice anything on the perimeter feeds. What did worry Zade was that the tremors seemed to be getting stronger; Zade tried to tell himself that it was stronger and not closer. He could feel his uneasiness building with the tremors.

  “Axis, could you take a break from your leisurely ride through the woods, and pay attention to the tremors? It feels like they’re getting stronger.”

  “Excuse me, I’m a scientist and unlike you, I never grew a fondness for mindless labor or this much walking,” Axis stated. “I have to say though, you did a great job on these new SSILF. I can’t feel a thing up here.”

  “I appreciate the assist, you eyeless alien midget,” Zade replied sarcastically.

  Axis burst out laughing, placing a limb across his midsection, but not jumping down from his throne.

  It took another two hours before Zade’s interface indicated that they had reached the site. The jungle loosened slightly at the sight because the bedrock was too close to the surface to allow any deep-rooted plants to grow. Just north of the site, running northwest to southeast was a cliff that towered 200 feet above the landing team. By the time the team reached the site, the sun was low on the horizon. Zade knew that by the time the team started making their way back to the ship it would be dark. Running a quick program on his interface, Zade had luminous, green waypoints evenly distributed along the length of the path the team had just cut through the jungle. It was a secondary safety measure, but Zade would be able to see the path even in the pitch black that would cover the planet’s surface when night fell

  Axis jumped off the pack mule and ordered the maintenance SSILF to begin unloading the geological equipment. As Axis got to work, Zade repositioned the observers. The cliff would provide an amazing watch position; Zade ordered one of the SSILF observers onto it. The cliff also limited the avenues of approach to the site, so Zade consolidated the remaining observers on the sides of the objective that was open to the jungle. Zade set all of the observers to scan their sectors and alert hi
m of any movement or lifeforms in their field of view. After patrolling the area and monitoring the observers’ sectors to ensure they interlocked, Zade propped himself against a rock outcropping and dozed off.

  ∆∆∆

  The tremors had grown strong enough to knock Zade onto his side and wake him. Night had fallen, and the worksite was blanketed in the inky blackness that only arises on a moonless night. Standing, Zade looked around and saw Axis, seemingly oblivious to the strange and worsening conditions on the planet. Zade checked all of the observer feeds, but nothing was out there.

  Are you guys alright out there? It looks like the earthquakes are moving along fault lines towards your position, Samix asked over Zade’s interface.

  Since when do earthquakes move? Zade responded.

  It’s a new phenomenon, we’ve never seen it before this planet.

  The unease settled back into the pit of Zade’s stomach. He had never done any work in geology, but he did know the basic principles surrounding earthquakes, the main one being that earthquakes are stationary. Years of combat had honed Zade’s ability to warn him when something wasn’t quite right; right now, his body was screaming at him that something was very wrong.

  How many of these new moving earthquakes are closing on our position?

  There are three, one from the north, one from the west, and one from our position.

  Alright, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. We will keep you in the loop.

  Huh, bad feeling. I didn’t realize you had that much planetary exploration experience, Samix replied, knowing that humans had never set foot off their own home world. It was a nastier response than Samix had planned; she couldn’t really figure out why she felt she had an ax to grind with Zade.

  Funny, but I do have experience getting blown up by things I can’t see. Just send me the feed with the earthquake locations, Zade shot back before he cut communications with the ship.

  Zade knew that something was very wrong about this planet, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Now he could see the vibrations shaking through the trees toward him. The tremors coming from the north and west looked like they were going to hit their location at the same time, with the one coming from the ship would hit their position shortly after. As the first two tremors hit the perimeter, there was a disturbance on three of the observer feeds, then they went dark. Rerunning the now dead feeds, Zade could see rocks and debris flying up from the ground just as the feeds died. Zade finally connected the dots. The vibrations weren’t being caused by earthquakes; there was something moving underground causing the tremors. The geological testing must have attracted them, which is why Zade and or anyone on the ship hadn’t noticed significant movement until Axis started his testing.

  As Zade put it together, the last thing hit both his and Axis’s position. Zade began running toward Axis, who was now unable to stand due to the movement of the planet under foot. As Zade grabbed Axis, pulling him away from his equipment, the ground began to give way. Tossing Axis behind the safety of a large boulder, Zade turned to see a large, mole-like creature emerge from the worksite, swallowing the three SSILF in the process. The mammoth rodent breached through the rocky ground with ease. It had the body of a standard subterranean mammal but it’s back was covered in protective plating. Zade could see that between the plates, large rocks had gotten wedged, making the creature almost invulnerable when standing on all fours.

  Zade ordered the remaining SSILF to his position and instructed them to begin firing on the giant mole. Hundreds of rounds from the railguns failed to penetrate the hard, protective shell of the monster. The ineffective fire did however draw the creature’s attention to the SSILF. It destroyed them with one snap of its massive jaws. Zade used the temporary distraction to spur Axis into action.

  “We should probably be getting back to the ship. Now. Here is our route,” Zade said as he transferred the waypoint data to Axis.

  “What the hell do I do with this. I can’t outrun that thing! My legs are tiny,” Axis replied frantically.

  “Just follow the markers and run like hell. Call up the ship once you get back into the thicker jungle, make sure you can get on the ship as soon as you get to it,” Zade said as he turned away from Axis.

  Axis took off at a dead sprint, leaving Zade to deal with the mole monster. Zade circled the monster just out of its reach, taking the occasional pot shot to keep its attention. Zade realized how good of an idea the vision augmentations were. Without them Zade wouldn’t have stood a chance; one trip, fall, or misstep would have meant certain death. As he circled, Zade had to stay out of reach of the creature’s large, digging claws. Zade continued firing, using the targeting reticle in his interface to aim for any soft spots on the animal.

  As Zade ran his first power source dry, he knew he had to do something to even the odds. The first few rounds out of the second power source were aimed at the animal’s exposed feet. The shots, although not exceptionally effective, did seem to slow the animal down. As his desperation grew, Zade tried to formulate some plan that would best this animal. Realizing that most subterranean animals were extremely sensitive to light, Zade pulled one of the signal flares out of his cargo pocket. Taking aim as the animal rounded on him, Zade shot the flare directly into the giant animal’s head. As he had hoped, after the flare impacted the creature, it reared back, exposing its soft underbelly. With no time to lose, Zade took aim with his railgun, flipped its selector switch from safe to auto, and drained his second to last power source into the animal. All 196 rounds from the expended power source connected in a tight group between the creature’s front legs. The rounds sprayed viscera everywhere and left a neat, basketball sized hole in the underside of the animal. It was dead before it hit the ground.

  Quickly switching to his railgun’s last power source, Zade heard the unmistakable sound of the animal’s companions surfacing for some action. The two creatures approached apprehensively, measuring up the tiny creature that had dispatched their comrade. They were on a path that would trap Zade against the cliff face if they continued unchecked. Zade felt his cargo pocket and was disappointed to find he only had one flare left. Grabbing it he edged closer to the tree line, waiting for the nearest creature to get within effective range. As the animal closest to the jungle closed with Zade he fired the flare and terminated it in the same manner as the first. Now out of ammo and running out of luck, Zade tossed the now empty railgun and drew his sidearm.

  Why didn’t I make grenades instead of putting these stupid ivory grips on this thing?

  Zade made a break for the jungle, hoping that if he could close the 200 yards and make it into the jungle he would have better chances. The last mole was hot on him, unbelievably fast for a creature its size. Halfway to the trees, Zade realized that he wasn’t going to make it. As he turned to make his last stand, Samix and the XES01 came screaming overhead, low and fast. Startled by the sudden appearance of the ship and all of the bright lights, the mole froze, its flight instincts kicking in. Zade looked up at the ship, and saw a rope dangling just out of reach. Holstering his sidearm, Zade took a couple steps, jumped, and grabbed it. Realizing that its prey was getting away, the mole sprang into action and sprinted towards Zade. It lunged, but was too late. The ship had already cleared the treetops and was moving back toward the landing zone.

  While the XES01 was still in flight, Zade hauled himself up the rope and onto the loading ramp. At the top, he was greeted by Jorloss and a visibly rattled Axis. As he got to his feet, Zade cut the rope loose and closed the ramp door. The post combat crash was starting to kick in and Zade felt exhausted. Zade walked over to one of the storage crates in the bay, and sat down. As he did, Samix came running in to see how her crew had fared. Jorloss was the first to speak.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’m fine. You ok?” Zade replied, looking from Jorloss to Axis.

  “I’m Ok. I started running, thinking you were right behind me. When I turned around to look and you weren’t the
re, I knew what you had done. I knew that I had to make it to the ship, or you wouldn’t have a chance,” Axis said. “Thank you. Not many people would have done that for a settler.”

  “No problem. I’m glad you made it back. Sorry you lost the data you were gathering,” Zade started.

  “Thank you for getting Axis back” Samix interrupted. “I don’t think I could have handled losing another crewmember.”

  “Like I was saying, I’m glad he made it back to the ship. You guys are on an important mission, and it’s my job to ensure everyone gets home safe. Well almost everyone,” Zade said, the last part hushed, and mostly to himself.

  Samix must have heard because the smile she wore at the rescue of her landing team, turned into a look of great sadness. As the crew stood in uneasy silence Axis could no longer control himself. The small alien had become extremely talkative and excited, and had to tell Zade about what he had accomplished. Zade wasn’t quite sure if Axis’s story was meant as a boast or an attempt to gain the approval of his crewmates. Axis reassured Zade that the data was not a loss, explaining that at a young age the Settlers had a large storage device implanted in their skulls. This allowed them to store all instrument readouts and large sums of data in their heads. It was a measure to prevent terraforming procedures from falling into the wrong hands. Axis had been storing all the data he found at the site in his head, and as soon as he boarded the ship it was uploaded to the data drone.

  After assuring Zade that the mission wasn’t a loss, Axis began explaining the events that transpired after the two had separated. After realizing that Zade was buying him time, Axis contacted Samix directly to update her on the situation. Knowing that Zade would need help, Samix had moved the ship toward Axis. He boarded the ship and had Samix fly it to the test site. Axis further explained that after monitoring the conversation between Zade and Samix about roping into the objective, he knew that he could hang another rope from the loading ramp, and Zade would be able to escape using it. Zade thanked the settler for the rescue, a gesture that caused Axis to swell with pride.