Deep Space Intelligence : Complete Series

by Gary Weston

  Hanson said, ‘I wake up breathing, I’m always cheerful. Apart from the coffee. Jeez. Here we are, putting our lives on the line, they don’t even pack real coffee for us.’

  ‘I could throw him in the river,’ offered Cole.

  Miller laughed. ‘Shame to pollute it.’

  Joy washed herself in the river. ‘This tastes so much better than what we have on the Base. Straight from the ice caps, I’m guessing.’

  ‘Prefer beer, myself,’ said Cole.

  They packed up and they marched onwards in single file along the path. Nothing broke up the miles of tunnel, so straight and true. They came to another clearing after more marching and once again made that their camp.

  ‘I’m going for a swim,’ Joy declared.

  ‘You are?’ said Raven.

  ‘And so are you. You stink. If you don’t, you’ll not be sharing my blanket tonight.’

  The river was shallow and slow flowing, and they had seen no signs of life in it the whole time they had walked alongside it.

  Hanson said, ‘It looks damn cold to me.’

  ‘Chicken,’ teased Joy, stripping off to her undies. She stepped into the river, and lay down in it. ‘Yep. Damn freezing.’

  The men followed her into the river, letting the pure water cleanse them. They didn’t stay long, and soon got out and dried themselves.

  ‘That was interesting,’ said Hanson, trying not to stare at Joy and the way her wet undies clung to her body.

  ‘I’ll not be repeating that experience any time soon,’ said Cole, dithering as he dressed.

  Revived, they continued their trek. One hour more, they saw light at the end of the tunnel. None could speak. Such was the sight before them, they were transfixed where they stood. They were at the end of the river on a platform hewn from solid rock. The river cascaded down a waterfall into a valley below. Before them, a city, a jewel of creation, surrounded by a lush ocean of green. If a Human could envisage a city of perfection, this would be hard to beat.

  The buildings appeared to be all domed shaped, grey in colour and of various sizes. They spread out in uniform rows as far as the eye could see. Trees and fields balanced the buildings perfectly and everywhere was activity. Crops were being tended; very few vehicles traversing the city streets. They appeared just to be used to cart goods about and were solar powered. From the far side, three more rivers cascaded into the city from other tunnels, one which would have embarrassed Niagara Falls, creating rainbows all around them.

  Joy broke the spell. ‘This is the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my entire life.’

  Hanson said, ‘Where’s the light coming from?’

  ‘There,’ said Cole. ‘It’s like an artificial sun. These guys are pretty smart.’

  From his backpack, Raven took out his field glasses. The creatures were a florescent dark blue, shaggy looking, as if covered with feathers. It was difficult to see identifiable features, apart from their hands which had not only fingers, but two wicked looking claws on the back of each hand. It didn’t stretch the imagination much to envisage those claws slashing bio-suits.

  ‘Maybe that isn’t so pretty.’

  Miller took the glasses. ‘Oh! That looks like an army in training. Three guesses who they’re training to fight.’

  Raven said, ‘Only hand to hand combat, by the look of it. I can’t make out any weapons. I’m thinking we wouldn’t be too welcome down there. We need to get the hell away from here.’

  They turned, and there before them, was a creature that froze them to the spot. It was eight feet tall, a ball of dark blue plumage, no discernible eyes or other facial features, and two arms that almost reached the ground. Close up, the claws looked even more deadly. The creature reared up and roared, so loud it made their ears hurt.

  Raven’s training kicked in and he fired his laser rifle at the beast, and the red point of power struck the shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. Cole aimed a shot at roughly where a head should be, sending blue feathers flying, but still the thing didn’t go down.

  It lunged at Cole, driving its claws deep into his belly. Skewered with his guts sliced open, Cole was lifted in the air, wriggling on the monster’s hand. Raven got in another shot, finding the middle of its face or at least where a face should have been. It roared out with pain, but Cole was still stuck on its claws. In one death defying act, Cole aimed the rifle at point blank range and blasted the top of its head off.

  The stench of seared flesh filled the air. The creature rocked unsteadily, roaring in agony, Cole’s blood running down its arm. Then it toppled over into the water, and it and Cole dropped over the end of the river, down the waterfall. Too stunned to speak or move, they stared at the waterfall for a moment.

  ‘We need to get the hell away from here and fast,’ said Raven.

  Chapter 21

  They hurried back the way they came, pausing only at the ‘T’ junction, where the tunnel led back to Base.

  Miller pointed upriver and said, ‘That one we saw. It had to have come from down there.’

  ‘I don’t want to think about what could be down that other way after what we’ve just seen,’ said Raven. ‘We need to press on.’

  They turned into the tunnel and although exhausted, continued the fast pace. Seeing Cole butchered that way was all the incentive they needed. They had gone only two hundred yards when they heard the roar from behind them.

  Raven and Miller fired their weapons together at the two huge charging creatures. One fell dead, the other, although wounded, didn’t slow down. Four laser rifles were aimed and fired together, but they could only guess where the thing’s vital organs were, under those strange blue feathers. Raven aimed at where the head should be, and the creature crashed to the ground at their feet. Joy blasted it with her weapon to make certain it was dead.

  ‘Come on,’ said Raven, anxious to get out of the tunnel. Eventually, they made it to the hole that went up into the jungle.

  ‘Hey,’ yelled Miller. ‘Anyone up there?’

  The line to pull them up dropped down. Raven fastened the harness to Joy and tugged on the line. Joy was pulled up to the surface as were the others, one by one.

  Raven told Commander Carver, ‘Guard this hole around the clock. At least three men at all times, and armed. Here. Take my guns.’

  Carver handed the weapons to the security men by his side. ‘Anything comes out of that hole, kill it.’

  ‘We should fill it in,’ said Miller.

  Hanson said, ‘These creatures went through reinforced concrete like it was butter. They’d just pop up in another place.’

  ‘I suppose,’ said Miller. ‘Ok. Ryan Cole was a good friend of mine. I need to go and break the news to his son. I’ll join you later.’

  With the security established, Carver, Raven, Hanson and Joy went to the dining hall. They all got food and juice and sat together.

  ‘Us not having many weapons to fight back with is a worry,’ said Carver. ‘You say it looked like an army down there?’

  Raven said, ‘It looks like they’re getting ready to attack on mass. I think the killings so far have just been to warn us off.’

  Hanson said, ‘We saw no weapons, other than their claws. They attack in any numbers we’re screwed.’

  ‘They’re fast, big and strong,’ said Hanson. ‘We had to put a whole load of shots into them to kill them.’

  Joy said, ‘That city. They’ve lived below us all this time and we never realised.’

  ‘Why are they attacking us now?’ asked Carver. ‘We’ve been here for two years. Why now?’

  Hanson said, ‘I’ve been thinking about that. They have an artificial sun down there, providing warmth and light. My guess is, they lived on the surface until the planet got knocked out of orbit. They made a place to live underground. But that sun isn’t a natural phenomenon and it has to be powered by something. Helium three would be my choice of fuel.’

  Carver nodded. ‘And in our ignorance, we’ve been using up their fuel
. They’ve been keeping an eye on us up here. They finally had a gut full of us and now they want us gone.’

  Chapter 22

  ‘Dad. Oh, Mr Miller. I thought…’ Vornil Cole was a younger version of his father. Tall for a fifteen-year-old-boy, with his father’s eyes and mop of thick ginger hair.

  ‘Mind if I come in, Vornil? I’ve news for you.’

  Suspecting this wasn’t good, Vornil let Miller into the rooms and closed the door.

  ‘Dad. Where’s my Dad?’

  ‘Sit down, son. This isn’t good news I’m afraid.’

  Vornil sat, as did Miller. ‘Dad. Is he hurt?’

  Miller took in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. ‘Vornil. I’m so sorry. Your father’s dead.’

  Vornil knew his father was going on a dangerous mission to find out the secrets of the tunnels below them. Not to come back alive, though, this he wasn’t expecting. ‘Dad’s dead?’

  Miller nodded. ‘Yes. It was all over pretty quickly. One of those creatures killed him’

  ‘What happened down there?’

  ‘We had no idea what we were going to find. There are tunnels all over the place down there. We…the five of us were armed. We followed this one tunnel. A river runs through it. We went on for miles. We came to the end of the tunnel, and the river cascaded down into a valley and on to a city.’

  ‘A city? Underground?’

  Miller said, ‘Yes. To be honest, it’s an amazing place. Those creatures live there. Have done so for a long time.’

  ‘There’s a lot of those monsters?’

  ‘Yes. We were about to turn back and report what we’d discovered. Then from behind us, one of them attacked us. Your father was the one it got. I’ll spare you the details. But as they fought, your father wasn’t going down without a fight. As tall as this room that thing was. Huge. But your father didn’t stop fighting the thing, and he managed to get a shot at it and killed it.’

  Vornil tried to take in all what Miller had told him. It was as if part of his brain had frozen up and he could hardly think.

  ‘Dad would do that. He wouldn’t run away from it.’

  Miller said, ‘Your dad was a pal of mine from way back. I was with him when you were being born.’

  ‘Mom died that day.’

  ‘Yes. She did.’

  Vornil wiped away a tear and took a deep breath. ‘Mom’s gone. Now, Dad. I’m it. I’m alone.’

  ‘No. Never think that. You have a family with all of us here. You can come and live with me and my wife if you wish.’

  Vornil nodded. ‘Maybe. Jeez. Dad. I can’t…’

  ‘I am so sorry. Ryan was like my own blood. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it has.’

  They shared a moment of silence and sorrow.

  ‘Did you bring his body back?’

  ‘We couldn’t. When Ryan killed the monster, they went into the river. They went over the falls. Vornil. Your dad was badly injured and I think he died before they went over. Either way, he couldn’t have survived the fall. We had to leave him there. I’m so sorry.’

  Vornil said, ‘You met more of them?’

  ‘Yes. We encountered two more on our way back. Those things can move. They ran at us. We blasted the crap out of them and left them for dead.’

  Vornil snarled an angry smile. ‘Good. We should kill all of them.’

  Miller shook his head sadly. ‘The truth is, I don’t know what the hell we should do. I don’t call those kind of shots.’

  ‘I think I want to be alone now.’

  Miller got up. ‘I understand. But remember what I said. You are not alone. I know your father would have looked after my wife if I had been the one killed down there. There’s no rush. You think it over what you want to do, ok?’

  Vornil nodded. ‘I will. Thanks.’

  Miller went to the door. ‘Any time you want to talk to somebody, you come to me and my wife.’

  There was nothing more to say and Miller left the boy to grieve.

  Chapter 23

  It was time to call a meeting. The Human population of Nyzon Five had a right to know the situation. Apart from five armed men guarding the hole, the entrance to the tunnels, everyone gathered around the podium, the Base speakers ensuring all seven hundred and twenty two remaining could hear the commanders.

  Carver said, ‘Order, please. I’m well aware the rumours will be circulating. And, a lot of what you heard is true, I suspect. I’m about to tell you all we know for sure.’

  ‘First, in case anyone hasn’t yet heard, we have lost one of our own. A colleague and friend to all of us here. He died bravely. A good man and we’ll all miss him. We will hold a ceremony to mark his passing after the meeting.’

  ‘Also. Professor Lake is not a professor of entomology. He is Tagg Raven, an agent with Deep Space Intelligence. We were all assuming the deaths were murders by one of our own. That, we now know, is not the case.’

  ‘Neither is it anything supernatural. Incredibly, we have been sharing this planet with another race of beings. They live far below us in, what I’m told, is a beautiful city.’ There was a gasping and whispering of those gathered around and Carver paused then called for order. ‘When we arrived here, our assumption was that the planet was uninhabited. Policy dictates we do not extract anything, including helium three, from inhabited planets. Had we known about these…other beings, we would not be here today.’

  ‘Are they the killers?’ It was Venitia who had asked the question. Commander Vickers took the microphone.

  ‘Venitia. It isn’t that simple.’

  ‘Did they kill my Sam?’

  Carver and Vickers looked at each other, then Vickers continued. ‘Venitia. This is a complicated situation we have here.’

  ‘Trent. Did they kill my Sam, yes or no?’

  ‘We believe so, yes. But it wasn’t just killing for killings sake. We are extracting helium three. These beings depend on it to live. They have created an artificial sun underground, which can only be powered by helium three. All of us are here for one reason only. The extraction of helium three, for powering our ships and several cities on planets we have colonised.’

  ‘Once we had taken all we could, we would have simply abandoned this planet and found another helium rich planet to work. This is not now our planet to plunder. As of this moment, for the foreseeable future, we stop the helium extraction. The less we do to antagonise these beings, the better.’

  ‘Is that it?’ called another. ‘My husband was killed by one of those monsters. And what are we going to do? Say, sorry to them? We’ll just go and leave this place to you?’

  ‘We should go down there and wipe them out,’ cried another.

  Carver yelled into the microphone. ‘Now listen to me, all of you. We are in no position to wage a war with these beings.’

  ‘I heard they have no weapons,’ replied a man. ‘What are we waiting for?’

  Raven stepped in. ‘Just because we didn’t see any weapons, does not mean they don’t have any. These are not just some dumb creatures living underground. They are at least our equal in intelligence. We believe their world on the surface was destroyed by the asteroid that pushed this planet away from their sun. They must have seen that coming, and set about creating a world for themselves below. It is us who threatens their existence, not the other way round.’

  ‘Commander Carver.’ It was John Nightly who spoke up. ‘Even if we decided to pack our bags and go, it would take at least eight cargo ships to do that. It would take almost two months to get that number of ships here. In the meantime, we are getting picked off one by one.’

  Another man spoke up. ‘Sir. How true is it they are raising an army to attack us?’

  Raven looked at Carver who nodded. Raven said, ‘From what we saw, it had all the appearance of some kind of military training going on. Without weapons, I might add.’

  Carver added, ‘It could also be them getting prepared in case we go down there and attack them.’

  A wom
an said, ‘My son is right now guarding that damn hole. Are we prepared to do nothing and put his life in danger?’

  Carver said, ‘You’re forgetting one thing, all of you. Apart from five laser rifles, we have no weapons. We take them on, even if they are unarmed, the outcome will be death on both sides, with us being wiped out. That is the reality of our situation. I’m asking for calm heads. We need to think logically about how to handle the situation.’

  ‘Right,’ called a man. ‘And just hope in the meantime they don’t decide to come up here and wipe us out. Is that all we can do?’

  Carver’s sigh echoed from the speakers. ‘For now, yes. That and pray. Now. Silence please as we remember our friend, Ryan Cole.’

  Chapter 24

  Freighter Captain Karma Casey had been surprised by the activity that awaited her when she landed her cargo freighter. She was even more surprised when the silver fox himself, Freighter Commander Rocky Ramshorne was waiting on the landing pad for her.

  ‘And to what do I owe this great honour, Rocky? Why are you here on Varlindra?’

  AT eighty-seven, just three years away from mandatory retirement, Ramshorne was still a handsome figure of a man. True, he had gained a little weight from flying a desk for twenty-five years and his fair hair was more silver than gold these days, but his blue eyes still had a twinkle and he had lost none of his charisma.

  ‘I wanted to tell you in person, Karma. You’re heading straight back to Nyzon Five.’

  This did not sit well with Casey. ‘Oh, come on, Rocky. I’ve spent more time in a can than out of it in the last two years. I’m well over-due a break.’

  ‘We’ve been ordered to prepare to evacuate Nyzon. That’s why I came here. To organise your return to Nyzon. We’ve been getting other freighters ready while we waited for you. No final decision has been made, but I’d stake my pension on it being the case that Nyzon is evacuated. The helium three you’ve just hauled here will get you and seven other freighters to Nyzon and back here. You’re my most experienced captain in this sector, so I want you to lead the convoy.’