Alien Enigma

by Bain, Darrell; Teora, Tony

  Bullet went down on one knee to rest while waiting to see what was going on. The news came very shortly over the platoon com.

  "Listen up! We got masses of Worms forming up for a charge on the other side of the ruins of the strike by Doc Travis. Form defensive positions immediately. Heavy weapons platoon bear left. Second platoon will hit them from the other side and try driving them into us. Estimated contact with the first body of Worms is less than ten minutes but we're calling in air strikes first. Dig in quick. The old man is sending in the coordinates now."

  ***

  "Fire as required, Major," said Keane, hoping prisoners were not included near the Worms, or beneath the area where they were firing. He could wish they were farther away from where the city's air defense had been. It was going to take another beating, and there probably wouldn't be much left of it but rubble after both the plasma cannon and rail guns scoured the area.

  Cindy received the codes and loosed the plasma pulses. As soon as the smoke and flames partially cleared she received new coordinates for the rail guns. The ship shook and shuttered as they cut loose in turn.

  ***

  "Look at these stupid fucks, they call this a war? It's a goddamn massacre." Bullet kicked the head of a steaming Worm, about all that was left of it. They were moving through the smoking ruins, mopping up. There was little resistance.

  Sal Salvino pulled a cigar out of his front shirt pocket. He had two large flame thrower tanks strapped to his back and had been using the flames to destroy pockets of resistance. He delicately used the torch's pilot light to fire up his cigar. "It's more like a Jersey Shore barbeque," he said, taking a long drag of the American grown Cohiba.

  Bullet looked at the tape across the middle of Sal's face. "What, you got tired of wrestling 'em with your nose? So you decided to cook 'em instead?"

  "Funny, Bullet. You try hog-tying one of these fucking critters and see if you can keep your ugly face pretty."

  "Hell with that, I got hit with one of their slug shots and it almost busted my insides out on that last planet. Shooting the bastards suits me fine." Bullet held his marine issue X600 tight. It was locked and loaded, and set for max rounds per sec. The marines called it meat grinder mode.

  "Wonder why so many decided to fight here?" asked Sal exhaling a plume of bluish smoke.

  Platoon Sergeant Martinez overhead the conversation. "Didn't you guys listen to your com? Second platoon was attacking them from behind. The Major called for the rail gun after thinning them out with plasma bursts and we were the blocking force." He looked disgustedly at Bullet for not remembering. "You can rest easy, though. We did have orders to go down and explore the tunnels under this area, but they just got cancelled."

  Bullet could see why. There wasn't much left of it but a big smoking hole in the ground. He was just as glad. Company B was underground now, so he'd heard from scuttlebutt. They were looking for any other humans. He doubted they'd find any if it was comparable to the section of city that A Company had been through. All the captives had been living above ground and had been simply left in place when their Worm and robot masters left to fight. It had been no problem at all to rescue them. Usually it was just a matter of fending off their embraces and funneling them on back to the medics.

  Bullet gazed around one more time at the desolation. "Are we heading back to the shuttles?"

  "Don't get excited just yet. They want us to capture a few Worms to take back for more questioning."

  Sal shook his head, not wanting to wrestle another alien. His nose still hurt from similar work. He cursed under his breath.

  Bullet scanned the surrounding area. All around him were nothing but dead Worms. "I think we killed all of them, Sergeant. I didn't hear we had to take any alive. Shit, I know Sal would've loved to wrestle another, but what we got here is a fucking morgue."

  Sal raised his eyebrows at Bullet and wanted to say something but instead took another drag off his cigar.

  Sergeant Martinez started to walk up the thoroughfare they were on. "We'll find some. Follow me; I have the rest of our platoon a couple of streets over waiting for orders. We can get a few more men and go into the tunnels we passed. Maybe that flame thrower can convince a few to come outside."

  "Tunnels where we passed?"

  "I swear, I'm going to turn your com on as high as the volume will go then paste it to your ear. That bit of intelligence came in a good hour ago. This city is honeycombed with tunnels beneath it, not just in this area." The sergeant stared at the synthetic material at his feet for a moment as if he were looking through it and to the hidden part of the city beneath.

  Sal followed Sergeant Martinez and Bullet, wishing he didn't stand out so much. Sal had won the heavyweight state wrestling championships a few years back in New Jersey before joining the Space Marines. He almost didn't make it because of his weight, two hundred and sixty five pounds of mostly muscle. Being six four and solid like a rock, people would assume that no-one would fuck with you. Especially a marine. But as Sal knew, there was always some idiot trying to prove how tough he was to his friends-and Sal did have a few bar fights, and even a few close ones, but he usually knocked the shit out anyone in less than thirty seconds. But the Worms not only outweighed him by a hundred pounds, they were strong enough to make wrestling with one feel like bulldogging a mean-natured ox.

  Chapter Sixteen: Robots Fight!

  I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.

  Jack Handy quote- Saturday Night Live

  "Captain Keane, I have Major Rambling on the sec-com, he wants to talk to you," Cindy said. She was still manning the marine air cover from the Doc Travis. The trouble on planet Beta seemed to be calming down, and without any real attack on the Doc Travis, it had been a slaughter down below. The strategy by Rambling was brilliant. He easily wiped out half the Worms with his squeeze maneuver during the last big battle. The Doc Travis plasma blasts and accurate rail gun fire did the rest. What concerned Rambling and Cindy was how quickly the Worms reacted defensively. Apparently half of them quickly went underground then came up somewhere else. There was nothing on the Doc Travis weapons arsenal suitable for deep bunker blasting. If the Worms used the same tactics at Xanadu, the marines would have to go into the tunnels after them.

  "I don't like it sir," Rambling said, speaking from a tent on the outskirts of the city. "The Worms reacted much quicker than last time. The ones we fought in small teams were twice as clever as the last ones we fought and they seemed more organized. If they hadn't massed together, and the ship's fire support hadn't been so effective, we'd have had one hell of a fight on our hands. Having Cindy up there saved our asses from a lot more casualties."

  "It was your plan Steel, and I think it was smart. Great job."

  "I appreciate the compliment sir, but I'd rather celebrate later. The bastards that slipped though the choke point fought twice as hard as last ones we tangled with. We have some dead marines and had to use flamethrowers to burn them out of some ambush sites."

  Keane thought about it for a moment. "Why do you think they fought better?"

  "Not really sure, sir. Possibly a stealthed courier ship left the other occupied planet and ferried news of how we or maybe the Chinese fight. And they seemed to have some kind of battle communication going on and we couldn't jam it. Also, there were more of the smaller robots and they appeared to be organizing both the larger robots and the Worms. That's just an impression, mind you, but that's what it looked like. I've also got some good news and some bad news."

  "Give me the bad news first and let's get it out of the way."

  "A couple of the captives we rescued are saying the real control point for the city both here and in Xanadu sits directly beneath the air/space defenses, way down deep in just the place you wanted us to examine. It's supposedly a big computer of some sort. Even if it's not already destroyed it would take us weeks to dig down to it. They also said they thoug
ht some of their fellow captives were taken down there and never came back. That's not confirmed, though. It's more like hearsay evidence since the only one who knew about it was killed in the fighting."

  "Shit. Okay, give me the good news."

  "We got most of the captives back. The vast majority of them were living at ground level as slaves for various Worm family groups. Welshass', they're called. They just hunkered down and came out after we killed their masters."

  "Great. Now let me ask you a question. Do you think you've accounted for all, or mostly all, of the Worms and robots?"

  "I doubt it, sir. There's just too much territory for two companies of marines to cover and that's not even counting most of the underground tunnel system. From what the captives are telling us it's just a huge warren down there."

  "Hold on a sec, Steel. I want to talk to Commander Mundahan and Lieutenant Chavez. I'll cut you into the circuit so you can follow our conversation."

  Keane turned first to Lieutenant Chavez. "What's the status at the city, Anita? We've passed directly over it at low altitude twice now since the fighting died down. Is it still populated with Worms or robots anywhere that's evident?"

  "I can't say, sir. There are a few Worms and robots wandering around topside but the echolocation resolution isn't good enough for that kind of detail below ground. All I can tell you is that while the tunnel system below our rail gun strikes has collapsed, there are plenty more of them."

  "What about other weapons, any kind of EMI like that we took out?"

  "Captain Keane, although this city may look completed, we found spheres and triangular buildings being built at the perimeter. We don't know if there's anything else. They could have some more weapons that are concealed."

  "Thanks," said Keane. "I don't think we want to stick around here much longer but I do have one more job for you. I'm going to send down the reserve shuttle with a special weapon and a crew to place it. Your job will to make certain they're not observed while doing so, to the best of your ability." He looked in Mundahan's direction. "Cindy, you heard. I think a lot of the Worms and robots may still be holding out. I'm going to send you and some of your weapons techs down with a plasma bomb. Set its controls so that it can be triggered from space. If we see signs of rebuilding when we return, if we come back this way, we may want to simply destroy the place. Major Rambling will see to your security." He gave her a small smile. "And I'd like you to get started on that now."

  "Yes, sir. I'll get right on it." She hurried out of the control room.

  "Now then, Commander Levy. You said something about more shield modifications?"

  "Yes, sir. Now that the fighting appears to be over, I'd like to get started. It's going to be a lot of work even though we have the preliminary programs ready for installation." He also departed the control room.

  ***

  While Keane kept his com open for reports on the planetary situation, and progress in situating and programming the plasma bomb, one of the largest they'd had on board, Jergens and Harriette arrived to give the Captain a brief on the upgrading of Doc Travis' shield.

  "We haven't tested the changes yet," Juenne said, "but we were able to get into the backup flux containment field generator, thanks to Lieutenant Wannstead. He seemed keen on helping once he realized how close we were to getting blown out of the sky at our last encounter."

  "I'm sure he was," said Keane dryly.

  "We were able to tune the Quantum drive to any incoming energy beams for auto targeting, but we had problems with doubling the shielding," added Jergens. "It's about one point eight, a lot more than I thought possible-the extra hidden generator helped."

  "Yes, it helped in that we probably won't explode when we turn it on full," Harriette said. "This should work, but it was a rushed job."

  Keane smiled. It was amazing what people can do when they attempt the impossible he thought. The engineers were attempting a twenty per cent gain and his persistence yielded another sixty on top of that. But would it be enough?

  Keane looked at an engineering holo of the shield generator stats. "Great job team. And if you want a test, we have a live simulation coming up. I want the shields up to the new max and the new auto targeting set. We're going to move over the city again and I want to be ready just in case the marines missed something. This will be a good test before we get to Xanadu. Oh, and I'd like that up within the next thirty minutes. I don't want any surprises this late in the game. And one other thing before you go. How are you coming with those robots that went crazy?"

  "They settled down after it was plain they couldn't get out of the room we have them locked in. There are no electronic noises of any kind coming from it. The only one that's outside is completely disabled so far as movement goes, but we have it tied down anyway. Now that the shield for the ship is finished we're ready to try finding out what happened."

  "Work with Dr. Bergins. The Worms went berserk at the same time, you know."

  "Yes, sir," Jergens said, embarrassed that he hadn't thought to include the medics.

  The news was fascinating, but Keane wanted to move on to the city and Rambling was waiting. "Well, continue your studies on the robots, and brief me later. For now, I want the shield up to max, and the auto-targeting set. We're moving the Doc Travis over the city again to support Major Rambling while he's wrapping up operations. Any questions?"

  "No sir," said Harriette.

  "We should be able to have the magnetospheric shield up to its new full power within the next thirty minutes sir. I'll call down to weapons when finished," Jergens said.

  "Good, I'll head back to command and have the astrogator set our new course."

  Captain Keane watched them as they headed from the control room and back toward the engineering department, thinking about all the new things to be found in the universe. Was it reassuring or troubling that much of what he'd read in those old science fiction stories would turn up in the real world? Did the robots have a consciousness? Was their purpose in life just to build cities? Did they indeed have a hierarchy that they reported to? And if that was the case, were they capable of caring one way or another? The Doc Travis' massive computer, affectionately called Eve, was very nearly sentient. Many times it was hard to tell that she was not, and in fact at times it seemed she was much smarter than he would ever be. Hell, sometimes he felt like a slave. The years of study, the hard tedious work to make Captain, the sacrifices to his personal life.

  As he walked back toward his day cabin for a short break, he saw Cindy Candrell, who had left earlier for an intermission to relieve some of the tension of combat. Seconds later he smelled her. She was wearing some kind of sweet perfume that tempted his senses. As she came nearer her breasts bounced slightly as if only minimally contained. She smiled while approaching then stopped in the crammed hallway close to him

  "I'm going to the wardroom for lunch. Would you like to join me, sir?"

  "I'd love to, but I need a quick break before we head back over the city. We'll need you standing by then. In fact, someone should be buzzing your com to tell you right about now."

  While standing close together it seemed as if Cindy's eyes were lit by tiny fires. Her glossy chap stick reflected the luminosity of the passage lights, giving her lips a sultry glow. They looked very enticing. She looked very enticing. She said something to him that to his distracted mind sounded like: "Captain, you can mount on me. Just a quick bite and I'll be right on my back, sir."

  Keane looked at Cindy, fumbling for words. "Ah ...I'm sorry? What did you say?"

  She spoke louder. "I said you can count on me, I'm having a quick bite at the mess and I'll be right back, sir"

  Keane frowned, knowing his subconscious mind was causing him trouble. He desperately needed some rest. His attraction to Cindy was growing, and he knew he had to be careful. He couldn't let his interest, and apparently hers too, jeopardize the mission.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you the first time. Enjoy your lunch but please get back quickly.
Major Rambling may need your assistance."

  "Will do, sir."

  After a short, much needed nap, Keane headed back to duty. On the way thoughts of Cindy again intruded but quickly faded as he entered the control room.

  ***

  Clemmie stood up from her bed as a fat brown Sinchik from the Stronge Welshass entered her sparse room.

  " Human," said the alien with a heavy stuttering sound.

  "Jah," replied Clemmie.

  "Come with me to Vivjo, we will test," the Stronge said.

  "Jah! I obey."

  Test what? There had never been any tests before. But Clemmie dared not ask the question, for questions were what got you reprimanded. And with eight hands, you never knew which one would do the slapping. Sometimes you'd get slapped by two hands. Clemmie recalled when they first crashed how a cook questioned the taste of food rations. Or actually, asked why the food tasted like dog shit. He first got slapped with one hand. He then asked: Why do I get hit for asking questions? Two hands immediately slapped him a little harder. The final question the cook asked was whether the alien knew if his mother had mated with a retarded earthworm-which resulted in all the foremost hands beating him until he fell to the ground in a bloody heap, moaning in pain. The welts took two weeks to heal. Soon after, most folks realized that questions to Sinchiks were best not asked.

  ***

  "We're in position, Captain" said Mundahan.

  "Good, inform Rambling that his men can proceed with the bomb."

  Keane sipped at fresh coffee while hoping that any fight while placing the bomb would be short lived. The four hours of sleep in the last twenty four were not enough. The XO could relieve him, but not just yet. Keane watched on a small holo screen as a relayed recording showed a squad of Rambling's men moving into one of the square edifices where they had located a wide ramp that led downward. So far things were quiet. The shuttles landed near some perimeter buildings but kept their engines idling.