by S D Tanner
Still firing at the woman’s pod, he shouted, “He’s already dead.”
“Funny kinda dead.”
Ignoring Rok, he leaned back until he could see the trooper next to him. “Trooper! Kick that guy off.”
A third and then a fourth clone tumbled from the platform in front of him, each trailing smoke from deep burns across every part of their bodies. Once the last clone fell, he would be completely exposed to the acid. If the troopers behind him didn’t move, then he would have to go forward.
“Rok, push those troopers off the platform.”
“Way to show leadership, Tag.”
He didn’t need a lecture from Rok. They were all reanimated corpses, meaning death was a relative state. Ash had been torn apart inside the chamber, but he was back on his feet, albeit with no memory of what had happened to him. Any wounded troopers could be loaded into a pod and repaired.
“Follow orders!”
“Not doing that, boss.”
Rok’s casual disobedient made him turn around and face him. “Really? This is where you draw the line.”
Continuing to fire past him at the aliens, Rok replied, “And you think this is the time for a spat?”
Learning they were dead was changing them, but he wasn’t sure what they were turning into. Agreeing with Rok that maybe he had more pressing issues to deal with, he turned to face the aliens, just in time to see the last clone fall to its death.
“Tag!” Judge’s voice sounded through his earpiece, but the muted sound of gunfire echoed in the background. “They found the empty lockers.”
He should have thought of that when Judge had left with the aliens. After taking control of the ship, he had the squad load the tubes containing embryos into a shuttle. Flak and Hawk had taken the shuttle into space before unceremoniously ejecting the tubes. The vacuum in space had done its job, and the tiny squid-like creatures had swollen and burned as their bodily fluids vaporized, and the cosmic radiation blackened their white bodies. It would have been safe to assume the aliens would take that poorly, and perhaps he should have warned Judge.
With the last clone gone, there was nothing between him and the acid. If he ducked, then Rok would get a face full of the stuff, but given he’d just disobeyed a direct order he was tempted to let him have it. A brilliantly yellow stream of liquid was headed for his face, and he raised his left arm to protect himself. The acid hit his mechanical forearm and black smoke streamed from the hole it created.
“Jessica, discharge the dome!”
She could blow the airlock from the Bridge and he hoped Judge and his squad would hang on tight, otherwise they’d be dragged into space with it.
“Jessica, belay that order,” Judge shouted. “You’re a pain in my ass, Tag.”
More streams of acid were headed for his face and he peered through the smoke looking for the alien. Although the cover on his eye had infrared, there was so much gunfire around him that it wasn’t much use. “Then what are you talking to me for?”
“Thought you might care.”
A shape moved behind the smoke and he took aim. “Not so much.”
“Don’t listen to Tag, Judge. He wants to throw us off the platform,” Rok shouted.
“You’ve really changed, Tag,” Judge said solemnly.
“Tag always was an asshole.”
Hoping his bullets had hit home, he couldn’t step back with Rok on his six, meaning he could only go forward. By now, he’d given up any hope of protecting the pods. With Rok firing five hundred rounds a minute from his KLAW and acid spraying everywhere, his section of the chamber was a write off. None of the sleepers stood a chance of surviving the fight. Another stream of yellow acid zipped through the smoke, but this time it traveled over his head and onto Rok.
“Shit, I’m hit!”
Droplets of the acid landed across his helmet and shoulders, making them sizzle and buckle. “How’s the gun?”
As the KLAW continued firing past him, Rok snorted in disgust. “Where’s the love, Tag? What about me?”
If Rok wouldn’t elbow the troopers from the platform, then he might as well go forward. It would mean running into a storm of acid, but that was better than listening to Rok complain. “If you’re still talking, you’re not dead enough.”
Even as he spoke, he was already launching along the platform. His bullets were firing wide, and he had no idea if he was hitting any targets. Inside the gray smoke, he saw the outline of a man who shouldn’t have been there. Aiming center mass, he unleashed another barrage of bullets. The body toppled from the platform, but there was another behind it. This time a yellow stream of acid appeared out of the smoke and headed for his face. Instinctively jerking back, the acid poured onto the left side of his helmet and ate through the darkened face mask. Droplets splashed onto his cheek beneath the eye cover, instantly making his skin melt until he tasted acid on his tongue and then it too dissolved. Blood mingled with the acid and he felt his cheek shriveling.
Unable to speak clearly, he mumbled, “I’m hith.”
Raising his gun, he fired at the body outlined inside the smoke. Although the acid was a hell of a weapon, the aliens didn’t stand a chance under the barrage of fire. A second body tumbled from the platform, and he moved forward looking for his next target.
“Dome is detached.”
Jessica’s honey-coated voice was a welcome distraction from the acid burning through his jaw and down his throat. “Essica, not winning.”
“I can see that, Tag. How injured are you?”
Given he couldn’t talk clearly and his chest was beginning to burn, he suspected his injuries were profound. “Ba..d.”
More acid fired from the smoke, only he couldn’t see the source. The pain inside his chest was nothing compared to his melting mouth and throat. Unable to locate the alien, he sprayed bullets across the platform in front of him, knowing full well he was probably killing sleepers. Even as he shot wildly, more acid rained down onto his gut and across his thighs. His armor melted some more and a new pain in his gut offered a brief distraction from that on his face.
“Essica…”
Another body was moving behind a pod to his left and he fired at it. When it too fell from the platform, he grunted with satisfaction, but the noise from his throat sounded more like a gurgle. Liquid was seeping from the hole in his neck and acid was eating his flesh from the inside out.
Jessica’s voice sounded through his only working ear. “Tag. Jump.”
He tried to ask why, but all he managed was a wet squelch.
Rok’s voice sounded in his earpiece. “Tag, I’m down.”
Jessica’s steady voice spoke with a confidence he was no longer feeling. “All squad members exit the platform.”
Rok groaned. “Can’t do that, Jess baby. Got no legs.”
“Then roll,” Jessica replied calmly.
Another spray of acid drenched through his already disintegrating armor. This time the savage liquid ran down the inner lining, eating through the flesh over his stomach. Slowly turning as if he were underwater, he staggered toward Rok who was lying on his side. Acid had cut through Rok’s kneepads and his lower legs were lying at odd angles to his thighs. He fell onto his side next to Rok and heaved his body toward the edge of the platform. The two troopers that had been behind Rok were already gone, making him wonder if they’d jumped or had fallen.
Rok’s laughter had a hysterical edge. “You look like shit, Tag.” He couldn’t speak anymore, making Rok laugh even harder. “Space flea got your tongue?”
Placing his boot into the middle of Rok’s spine, he wasn’t entirely sorry to kick him from the platform. A spray of acid landed on his foot, quickly eating through the metal inside his boot. Every inch of his body both inside and out was burning.
“Tag. Jump.”
He reached out his right hand to claw at the grill on the floor and acid landed on his glove, eating through his hand to the bone. Dragging his body across the p
latform toward the edge, more acid landed across his back, setting his spine on fire. Tipping his body over the edge of the platform, he rolled into the air. For a moment, he was suspended and able to see across the pods. Only one alien was left on the platform, and it was spraying a continuous stream of acid in his direction. He had underestimated their enemy. They had just taken down four highly trained soldiers without firing a single bullet.
Even as his body dropped, he raised his hand. Giving the alien a one finger salute was the last thing he did before his body slammed into the floor at the base of the chamber.
CHAPTER THREE: Meltdown
Awareness came slowly, like the steady ticking of a clock in an empty room. Half-sitting upright and looking to his left, another face was staring back at him. Beyond the rough-featured man were more pods just like the one he was in. Unsure why he was inside a pod, his gaze settled on the face of the man next to him.
“Who are you?”
“Rok.”
He touched his face, vaguely aware there was something worrying him. His cheek felt rough and he scratched at the stubble, perplexed by his situation.
“Nice of you to join us!”
The voice was one he recognized, but he couldn’t remember where from. A craggy face wearing a bemused smile came into view. “Morning, Tag.”
“Morning?”
Sitting on the edge of the pod, the older man grinned at him. “Nah, not really. There’s no dawn in space.”
His sluggish brain couldn’t make sense of the man’s reply. “I’m in space?”
“Yup, you’re spaced out in space.” His comment seemed to amuse him and, rising to his feet, the man’s chuckle seemed at odds with their situation.
Rok was already climbing from his pod. “Who the hell are you?”
As the man spoke, he waved at Rok to get back inside the pod. “I’m Judge, and the cover over your eye contains a screen. Jessie has compiled a little wakey-wakey message for y’all. Lie back and enjoy.”
“Hello, Tag…”
The woman’s honey-coated voice conjured up a vision of a striking woman and, although he didn’t know who she was, there was something about her that he instantly liked. Warmth flooded through his addled mind, and he dropped back into the pod, watching the images playing through his eye cover.
“My name is Jessica, and I am Servator for the Extrema. You have been modified and brought back to life from death. Your brain is part machine and part biological. The following footage has been impregnated with a second and third layer invisible to the human eye. It will interact directly with your cerebral cortex, teaching your brain to overrule the protocols set by the computer inside your head, which will give you access to your short-term memory.”
“She thinks we’re kinda stupid, doesn’t she?”
Rok’s question sounded rhetorical, but he didn’t think Jessica thought they were dumb. “Shut up and listen.”
Jessica’s voice was familiar in a way lovers usually were, but he didn’t remember being with her that way. As the footage flickered and Jessica talked through the events that had led to him wake inside a pod, another woman’s face appeared inside his mind. She was his wife, but the picture quickly dissolved and was replaced by that of a child with softly rounded cheeks and long braids. His chest lurched at the sight of her. Jessica had just told him Daisy was dead and his mouth turn downward into a grim line. Someone would pay for taking her away from him.
His brain was stitching itself together as he remembered losing Ark Animax and Ark Prognatus. One million sleepers were dead, and he had half a million still in stasis. He and the rest of his squad had been dead for three hundred years and reanimated by a company called Lunar Horizon. No one knew how long they’d been in space, only that the sleepers had been used to feed the alien embryos they had fired into space.
Just as his mind snapped into place, the flowing footage inside the cover over his eye ended. Sitting upright inside the pod, he saw Jessica perched at the other end. Just seeing her smooth featured face made him smile. “Jessica.”
Returning his smile with a welcoming one of her own, Jessica nodded at him. “Tag.”
“Shit, Tag, you’re an asshole.” Rok’s rough tone cut through his head like a knife, ruining the moment he was sharing with Jessica.
Hauling himself from the pod, he glared at Rok. “What’s your problem?”
“You killed a million sleepers.”
Judge tapped his shoulder, then handed him a folded uniform. “Not exactly true. The Animax was already gone, so we can only credit Tag with half a million.”
Taking another bundled uniform from Judge, Rok’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you keeping score, dude?”
Jessica’s update had left him with only one question, and it wasn’t how many people he’d killed. The firefight in the chamber had ended when Jessica detached the dome and he’d fallen from the platform.
Snapping the tabs on his shirt, he looked at her again. “Where’s the alien that was left alive on the platform?”
“Trapped inside the teleporter. I suspended it for six months while you repaired inside the pod.”
“How far are we from Earth?”
“Dark side of the moon.”
Glancing at Judge, he asked, “Did you interrogate the alien?”
Judge shook his head. “Nope. This is your mission.”
Giving Judge a look of complete disbelief, Rok flicked his thumb at him. “This guy is our mission commander? The jackass that got us killed?”
Frowning, Judge shook his head. “You’re always dead, dumbass.”
Although Judge was right, and they were all dead, it didn’t mean Rok had to follow him, not anymore. They were adrift in time, three hundred years from where they’d started. He had no authority over the squad and they either believed in him or they didn’t. Real leaders earned their stripes, meaning their obedience wasn’t something he was willing to force. It wasn’t as if he had anything remotely resembling a plan. If he was ever to be their leader, then he needed to know where he was going, or they might as well follow a headless chicken.
“I want a word with that alien.”
Judge nodded. “We set up an isolation chamber in the docking bay. It stops the freak from spitting acid.”
Jessica was already walking along the platform toward the locker room. Following her, he glanced over his shoulder at Judge. “What else did I miss?”
“Nothing much. The other two troopers are up and moving.”
“What about your guys?”
“I lost two when Jess blew the dome.”
“Ash and Joker?”
“They made it and everyone else is fine.”
His mouth turned downward and his eyes narrowed. “What about Lolo?”
Harrumphing softly, Judge walked by his side as they passed through the locker room to the arterial corridor. “She’s living inside the room next to the lockers.”
The docking bay had been modified to include a ten-foot transparent square box, and Jessica had already teleported the alien into it. Behind the sheer walls was what appeared to be a man hunkered on his haunches. Seeing them walk across the bay toward him, the man rose to his feet with a single fluid movement. The soft, unlined face and glossy dark hair meant the man couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. It was hard to believe his kind had spat acid at him, tearing his body apart until he’d fallen from the platform to what should have been his death.
Only a thin transparent wall separated them and he stood studying the man, noting that nothing about him betrayed what he was. Inside the chamber, one of the aliens had fed on a sleeper, or at least that’s what he assumed it had been doing. To say he knew nothing about their enemy would have been an understatement and, when he was done questioning the alien, he would have Robert take the alien apart. The squids he’d seen on the Prognatus and Animax had been transparent and none of their organs had been where they belonged. Given the alien
s could spit acid, he suspected their similarity to humans was only cosmetic.
The human-looking creature was staring at him, show no recognition or interest. Resisting the impulse to tap the transparent wall, he asked, “Who are you?”
A thin, red tube slithered from the man’s lips, flicked out like a snake and then slid back again.
“What are you?”
Still dressed in a blue jumpsuit, the alien stood with its arms on either side, its hands relaxed and shoulders sloping downward. It was so calm he wondered if it cared about being held prisoner.
Rok had pressed his nose against the transparent wall like a dog at a window. “Can it talk?”
The clone hadn’t acknowledged him when he spoke to it, so maybe none of them communicated in a way they could understand. He remembered the blue aliens made a hissing sound between them and turned to look at Jessica.
“Did you record the sounds they made?”
She nodded. “I was unable to find any pattern.”
“Is it a language?”
“Possibly, but maybe not.”
It wasn’t much of an answer, but Jessica’s ability to analyze anything other than the Extrema was limited. “Did you examine the ones that fell from the platform?”
“They self-destructed.”
“How did they do that?”
Judge answered for her. “Acid. Not sure if it was from the fall, or it’s just what they do.”
“Can we neutralize the acid?”
“Not with what we have on the ship.”
Looking at the alien again, it hadn’t moved or shown any signs it understood what was happening. Maybe it was only a dumb dog, but it hadn’t fought like one. The battle inside the chamber had been fierce, meaning the creature was far more intelligent and capable than it was showing. Given he and his squad had been forced to jump from the platform, then the aliens had won the fight. Although it might look like a young and vulnerable man, it was an efficient killer, and he wouldn’t underestimate it again.
“Why did you reanimate us?”
All he got by way of reply was a slow blink of its brown eyes. Looking human on the outside, but being an alien on the inside meant the creature was an abomination. Somehow it had taken DNA from humans and turned it into something twisted and damaged. Frustrated by its lack of reaction, he slammed his hand against the wall on the box, and it shuddered under the blow.
