Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “Amen,” Jen said nodding.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The next day Shane ran into a running debate between the biologist Dr. Phillips and Jen. They were watching a video and arguing a point of logic. He came in and then turned to leave but she stopped him.

  “Honey, maybe we can get you to settle this. We just found out that this is related to this. Its actually the young,” she said pointing to an ugly critter.

  “What the hell is it?” he asked looking closer. It was about the size of a small dog. Butt ugly, lying on its stomach like a seal. It had two massive paws and two small legs. It reminded him a little of a bulldog. Big front end, tiny rear. With a face no one would love but some did.

  This thing had four eyes. Two of them big wide puppy eyes. Its back was covered in spines. It had a wide mouth with tendrils coming out of the lips. Two looked like a turkey snoodle thing. Jen pressed play and they watched the thing flop around and act like a puppy. He recognized it now, he'd picked it up at the carnival when doc had been about ready to get his ass lynched.

  “They call it a Medusa puppy. Someone with a questionable sense of humor named it no doubt. Its not really a dog, none of the aliens are, well, there are a few that have traits but its like comparing apples and oranges. Um...” she paused the shot and then brought up another. “This was taken in the field.” It showed a group of Striders with a bunch of the Medusa things in the middle of what could only be a defensive circle.

  “What am I looking at again?” he asked.

  “Wait for it... there,” she said pointing. An animal that wasn't quite a Strider and wasn't quite a Medusa got up and wobbled and then fell flat on its face.

  “Um...”

  “You see? Its a juvenile. The Medusa are the young. The first born. The first stage of their life cycle. They are helpless like that for a week or so depending on their food supply. But then the front legs grow out and long, and the back gets that hard shell with spines. When it gets big enough to walk on its own it gets up.”

  “Dragging the rear legs.”

  “Hands. Arms actually,” Doctor Phillips said. He pointed a stylus at them. “The hands have long fingers that are used to pick items for the animal to eat. It uses the two trunks to suck water or breath, we're not sure.”

  “Okay....” he shook his head. Definitely alien. “What's the beef then?” he asked, looking from one to the other. He remembered something of doc's lecture about the aliens life cycle during the carnival. He was pretty sure that wasn't the problem.

  Jen grimaced and wiped her hair out of her eyes. He loved it when she did that. She sat back and huffed. “We're having an issue with the biology here. It doesn't fit the established models.”

  He blinked at her in confusion. Of course it didn't they were comparing... “Hon wasn't it you that just mentioned apples and oranges?” he asked gently. “They are alien after all.”

  She blushed slightly. “It... You see in the wild, animals that are a prey species are born and are almost fully developed right after birth. They have to move on their own in a matter of hours. Sometimes minutes,” Doctor Phillips explained patiently.

  “For example deer, bison, antelope, elephants, wildebeest, you name it,” Elizabeth, a teenage intern said with a nod. Jen nodded grudgingly.

  “Again, so?”

  Jen smiled a patient smile. “So these animals don't fit that pattern. They have to feed their young. We're not sure how the first generation survived to adult hood. But the adults seem to feed and protect their young. Which is unusual,” she said. She hit play and he watched the herd react to a predator by forming a circle around the young with their spines pointed out.

  “Okay...”

  “and therein lies the heart of the debate,” Doctor Phillips said. “This doesn't make sense. How can they use this behavior if they didn't learn it. How could the first generation survive to adulthood. How could they survive at all if they are helpless? They can't carry their young and the young are immobile for a period of time.”

  “Perhaps doc, but you're forgetting a few things here,” Shane mused. He held up his fingers as they looked at him. “One, they are aliens. We can't really have a perfect fit for a Terran model.” Grudgingly the four experts nodded at this. The vet gave the intern a smile. It was amusing to see someone turn Doctor Phillip's own argument against him. “Two, the model you're using is flawed. I believe there are animals that don't have to be born ready to go right off. Terran animals that require care as a child.”

  Jen snapped her fingers. “You're talking about rabbits and rodents! Of course! Why didn't we think of that!” she said amused, looking at the others. “He's saying that animals like that have young that can't fend for itself right after birth.” The other scientists nodded. She smiled at Shane. He felt a glow at her obvious approval.

  “I'm also thinking about the breeding too,” he said musing. The biologist nodded. “Three weeks or less to full adult maturation and breeding? That's one hell of a life cycle.”

  “Yes, yes, but that's not the point of this discussion. You're pointing out that animals in the wild aren't born with the ability to fend for themselves. I'd think that would be...” The woman stopped and frowned then shook her head. “Damn it, you're right. I've been spending all my time looking at these things, I've totally overlooked some of our own Terran animals. Like dogs and wolves.”

  “True, but also apes, and other animals. Kangaroos. Not everything fits. Its going to take time to figure out their quirks. You're not going to get every round peg to fit neatly you know. Not right away. I bet you'll all have papers and species and stuff with your names on them. You'll be doing stuff like this for years and years.”

  Doc smiled, but his eyes gleamed. To do something new, to find something no one else had seen was one of the goals of a scientist. The love of discovery and knowledge. There was a great deal of competition, but the ranks had been thinned by the invasion quite a bit.

  “You're pretty smart. You should be in our group,” Elizabeth said. He snorted softly.

  “I'm taking a layman's viewpoint to this. Sometimes you all get too close to something, or all come at it from the same approach, so that you lose perspective. Think about that. Now me? I'm going to go eat.” He smiled at Jen. “And I'm taking my lovely wife with me,” he said holding out his hand.

  She smiled back and took it. The others nodded to her. “You can have her back after lunch. If she's been a good girl,” he teased. She mock scowled at him.

  “Hey!” she said jerking his hand down firmly.

  “Yes dear?” he asked sweetly as she glowered. Or at least tried to. Her eyes were giving away her amusement.

  “I'm always good.”

  “Hmmmm...” he said smile growing. “I can think of a time or two...” She poked him. “Then again there is a time or two I remember when you were great,” he amended. Elizabeth snickered a little.

  “Better,” Jen said, making a brushing motion with her free hand and then stopping. “Come on dear, if you're treating for lunch I want a cookie when we're done.”

  “Yes dear,” he said and bowed politely as he escorted her off.

  Chapter 48

  He went over the list, sitting back and sipping a cup of coffee. For once it was quiet, and he had a moment alone. Jen was napping, or otherwise occupied. The kids were busy, and the home front was peaceful, without a looming crisis. It almost felt normal. He had to snort at his own thought tracks and shaking his head. Normal. Will wonders never cease. That he could think of this, this place, this life as normal. A routine. Wow. Three months, that was all it took for him to adjust his thought patterns. He shook his head. He smiled a little as he looked at the monitors across from him. In fact, most of the mall was quiet. Or at least running smoothly. He had about an hour before he would be missed.

  Most of the mall, hell, the entire complex was running like a Swiss watch. They still had some perimeter issues, he wasn't at all happy about the 60 side, but he was pretty sure n
o one else was for that matter. Right now it was something they'd have to live with.

  The religious leaders had called a truce with Jayne, or at least were lying low. There had been a bit of civil war going on at one point, apparently Jayne had pointed other religious leaders to the tent they had set up and the various denominations and groups had clashed. He wasn't sure how they worked it out, and frankly didn't care. Jen was the religious one, he was too busy shooting things and breaking things to attend regular service. Lucky him.

  Speaking of Jen, or at least thinking of her, he was curious about what they had been doing. Perhaps he should read about some of what they had, maybe he'd pick up on something new.

  “Let's see here, predators,” he said. They had a short piece of paper with a series of URLs jotted on it. He tapped at the controls until he found the site the IT people had set up.

  The site was broken into several parts. Predators, plants, and herbivores. Each separate section was divided into three subsections for water, land, and air. Each entry had an image, video, and description. Some had brief notes, others had what looked like pages of notations and video links. He shook his head. For now all he cared about were the predators.

  First off the top of the list were the Hellcats. There was a name for them in Latin but he ignored it. He pretty much knew about them, big nasty land predators. He hadn't known they grew to over three meters tall though. At the shoulder at that. Not fun. There wasn't a whole lot there he didn't know so he skimmed on.

  Hell-hounds and Felhounds were back to back. Apparently the two were possible cousins. He grimaced at some of the journal entries. Apparently the eggheaded jury was still out on that subject. The Hell-hounds he'd so far only heard about but really didn't want to run into. Oh, he'd seen them, from a distance, but none of his team had run into them yet. They looked like a mass of spines and armored plates. Long whip like tail that could shoot bone darts. “Nice...” He'd have to remember to tell the troops to watch out for that one. Pack hunters, very nasty. They even had multiple breeds. One looked like a nightmare hyena. Joy.

  Felhounds were the daytime scavengers they'd run into on Alessandro and had heard about from Wayne and other groups. Pale whitish colors, some with mottled spots. All of them had blood drenched paws and muzzles. Almost Dalmatians if you could ignore the savage predatory look of them.

  Muckers were some sort of eel thing people along water ways and coastal areas had run into. Some sort of electric eel with a sticky slime like a yag eel produced. Nasty.

  Gremlins had an ominous entry. He was amused to see that they finally officially linked Gremlins to Creeplings. Apparently the males were the land bound Gremlins while the red glider Creeplings were the females. There was a fuzzy image of a Gremlin Raptor and a pixelated still of something considerably larger. The Rex version, the king of Gremlins. That was ominous.

  He read the brief notes. Double talk about their intelligence, most of it with enough crap to annoy him. The scientists weren't taking anything at face value, even if there was video evidence. Somehow he wasn't surprised. The footage of the Gremlin using the rock to smash out the light had made it on to the page. Good sign that someone was trying to pay attention. Doc had been bugging him about trying to catch a few live specimens. So far he'd resisted. It wasn't that he didn't want to know, or that he was worried about people getting hurt trying to catch them... no it was, okay he was a little worried about what the little buggers would do to his people but he was more concerned about how smart they were. Could they learn from the contact? What if they passed it on somehow? That was something he didn't like to think about. He scrolled on.

  There was an image of a Gryphon, something he'd heard about yesterday. Wild looking thing, big chest and breast, Bony head crest with eyes and a beak tucked underneath. Horns on the crest and some big sickle like front claws. Four legs. The tail was wild. He'd heard that the aliens used folding crests and flaps display and other things. This one had the crest on the underside of the thick tapered tail.

  Its back was brown, and it had a red throat sack that swelled up. He watched the video clip. It moved with cat like grace despite the giant front claws. He paused it. The claws reminded him of something. An animal... he blinked and snorted. That was it, the claws of a raptor from Jurassic Park.

  From the look of the bluish tinge to the skin on the rear of the animal that would be the place to hit it. Since the aliens' blood was blue he'd bet that there were a lot of blood vessels close to the surface on the rear and underside. If you can't get through the tough upper back and chest, then bleed the sucker out. He'd have to make a note of that.

  What this site really needed was stuff on how to kill the damn things. Identify, avoid, and kill. Oh and prioritize the kills. No sense killing something that fed on its alien brethren and left humans alone.

  Apparently there were three entries for underground predators. One was a Great Wyrm, something he wasn't at all happy about finding out about. Fortunately it required soft soil, mud, or sand to live in. None of that around here. The inland empire was a desert, but the ground was like concrete.

  There was an entry about a Land Shark, somehow related to a water species. That he found hard to believe.

  There was also an entry about a tentacle creature. So far the main body had yet to be seen. He wondered if it was related to that thing that Bob's crew had flattened in the field a few weeks ago. Or that thing that had chewed up the flaming Hell-hounds when that guy had kamikazed. The alien had been flat, buried under an inch or so of dust and dirt, but had tentacles sticking out along the fringe. He frowned. He'd have to ask Jen or Yan to do a comparison.

  Most of the other entries were for miscellaneous creatures. He clicked the link and snorted. Insects, scavengers, and omnivores. He started with insects.

  Hoppers he knew about, the damn things were scary. Flying locusts with a taste for flesh. Apparently they molted into the flying versions he'd heard about recently. Dragonflies or Fireflies or whatever the guys called them. “Wonderful,” he muttered.

  The Sky-ray he'd heard about and skimmed past. The Birds... he checked. No, just the two, both of them were mainly scavengers. He snorted about the entry that the acidic shit had been confirmed. He had the obvious thought of some idiot chasing one around with a baggie until one pooped. And of course the shit eating right through the bag. He shook his head to clear it.

  The Man-o-war... he clicked the link and blinked at the image of a cloud of what looked like purple jellyfish. Flying purple jellyfish. Flying over... he squinted at the image. “What the hell?” he zoomed in. Flying over what looked like Florida. He zoomed back out.

  “Seriously?” he asked. “Can it get any weirder?” he asked himself. He clicked the video play button and watched as these things floated across the sky. He didn't really see the harm, why were they classed as predators? he wondered as he watched. Then it became clear as one by one they descended on a herd of sail back antelope. Some of the animals saw them coming and bolted. Most ignored the threat. He sucked in a breath as tentacles touched the backs of some of the animals. Where they touched, the animal died. Stiffened, fell to the ground, and sort of melted. He winced as tentacles seemed to suck up the juices. Not a good way to go. Not at all.

  He checked the notes. Hopefully... ah... yes these things were both tropical, and stuck close to water. Good. He was afraid a Santa Anna would blow them in. He'd have to put a BOLO out for them just in case though.

  Scavengers... he checked. There were several listed, two had markings as possible full predators. One was the Felhound, the other the Screecher. He clicked it.

  The image that came up made him blink. It was wild, four legs, a plastic, almost celery like bumpy skin, a giant crest on the top of the body... what got to him was the mouth. It was a vertical slit with rows of shark like teeth. It had a trunk, and four malevolent eyes under the top shell. Their were tentacles along the back of the body.

  It didn't really have a segmented body. Head and body we
re all one cylindrical shape under that upward curved, spiked shell on top. Wild. He'd hate to run into one in a dark place. According to the notes the thing liked to let out some sort of screech that was barely audible, hence the name. “Figures,” he sighed scrolling back.

  The Skitters he'd heard about, but not seen. Apparently someone had got an image up though. Six legs as described, purple body with puss yellow bags of flesh here and there, dotting it like a leper. A spine sail along the back.... The trunk and hammerhead face... “Definitely a face only a mother could love.” He could see why people got sick after getting near this thing.

  He checked the last couple of entries. There was one for a scorpion, odd that it was pretty close to a Terran scorpion, just bigger and nastier. The other was a... he blinked. A Shielder? He tried not to snort at the name. It looked like... he had a hell of a time trying to think of it as anything but a Hodgepodge of alien bits. Giant antler shield on the top, a... he laughed. A trash can over the rear end... really? He had to shake his head at this. He clicked a note and saw Jen had pointed out that it seemed to have Hermit crab tendencies. Funny.

  It had a head hidden in shadow under the shield. He could make out another trunk and some really big ears. It was a biped, with two long arms that had spikes all over them. Jury was still out on how it worked and lived. There was a bit about bioluminescence, about how the thing used patterns projected on the shield to scare off potential rival predators or scavengers. Unfortunately it hadn't been filmed. Fascinating.

  There was an entry about the Hell Boar. Apparently someone had got video of a pack of them running off Striders to eat their young. Their name was apt, Terran pigs were also omnivores. Just not nearly as big... or ugly come to think of it. Okay, not nearly as big. Well, some. He shook his head and sat back, drinking his coffee.

  “What'cha doing?” Jen asked coming in. He waved a hand to the tablet.

  “Just going over your notes.”