Ten Little Aliens

by Stephen Cole

  Yeah, yeah, they struggled against the odds growing up on crummy worlds, they were here to save Empire, personally round up DeCaster and his evil disciples and kick Morphiea’s ass single-handed; that was what going Elite did for you, right? Who was here for a career, for the housing benefits, for a dacha in the Thai systems when you were pensioned off?

  He had all that waiting whenever he wanted it.

  ‘Me, I’m Haunt.’ Shade looked up. ‘Any of you ever visit Idaho?’ she said, her face a pale mask. No one spoke. ‘It’s a good clean world. I remember when we took it. Tamed the Schirr, brought them into our order. Made them a part of an Empire they could be proud of.’

  ‘Yen, God and Hamburgers,’ Joiks quipped. The three pillars of Earth repatriation, as named by some stand-up on the Proxima circuit.

  Haunt ignored him. ‘So you see, I am a relic of a time when if you saw a Schirr on a vidscreen, it was just some new ugly to point at. To laugh at. See, a Schirr knew its place back then.’ Haunt looked round at them. ‘Me and DeCaster went into service at the same time. I joined up when the Earth embassy on Idaho was taken out. I’ve spent fifteen years fighting Schirr and their allies.’ She paused for a few moments. Her voice was quieter when she spoke again, the dull look back in her eyes. ‘The Army promoted me out of the front line, but I will see DeCaster dead within my lifetime.

  That is why I am here. Why all of us are here.’ She turned to Shel, the faintest trace of a smile on her face. ‘All right, where the hell is here.’

  Shel consulted his palmscreen. ‘The planetoid has no name. It’s a speck of rock in distant orbit around Vertigan Majoris.’

  ‘Edge of empire,’ breathed Lindey. Her tight red curls were plastered to her head with sweat.

  Roba spoke up, almost nervously. ‘We’re as close to the Spook Quadrant as anyone can get.’

  ‘We’re several thousand miles within Earth space,’ Haunt said, too quickly, too loudly. ‘Our rights to be here are universally recognised, you understand that, Roba?’

  Shade noticed Denni trying to catch his eye. She whistled silently through her teeth, and he nodded. Roba must be feeling lucky to have raised Morphiea at all, given Haunt’s track record.

  ‘I understand that, Marshal,’ Roba said quietly.

  ‘You’d better,’ Haunt told him. But just for a moment she looked suddenly uncertain, as if aware she’d overreacted.

  Shade had never seen her give the slightest concession to what other people thought of her. He caught Denni’s eye. She looked oddly apprehensive, like she was really spooked. He tapped his hand against the needle mark on his wrist. ‘The drug,’ he mouthed.

  Haunt seemed to have recovered herself. ‘All right, Shel.

  Mission objective.’

  Shel tapped some buttons on the palmscreen: ‘Our objective is to locate and secure a Schirr cypher and disable two droids operating inside the planetoid.’

  ‘Two!’ warbled Frog in disbelief, grinning round at the others. Seemed the drug hadn’t left her with any ill-effects.

  They probably ingested worse stuff than that at the kindergarten where she grew up. ‘Took us four weeks to get here, boys and girls, and we’ll be done in an hour.’

  Haunt wasn’t smiling now. ‘These are new droids, still crated up in the hold. Principal Cellmek has advised me that no one’s met Kay-Dees like these, in conditions like these, on any prior training,’ she said simply. ‘Consider this active service.’

  The words were enough to crush what little ebullience there was in the cramped cabin.

  We’re not Elite, thought Shade. We’re not the best.

  We’ve just survived.

  ‘How did I ever get here,’ he whispered to himself, shutting his eyes as he tried to shake the lingering hold of the drug.

  He wanted to enjoy the dark for a couple of seconds.

  But Shel had overheard him. He was consulting his top-secret little pad. ‘After turning your back on escort assignment, Adam Shade, you fast-tracked through the ranks in just three years. As an Earthborn, the fact that you were willing to serve at all, let alone out here on the frontier, guaranteed you favourable treatment.’ Shel smiled, got up and started showing the pad to every trooper in turn.

  Interested eyes scanned the text, lips were pursed, heads were shaken. ‘You accepted this without question at first -

  until the looks your squad were giving you finally began hurting more than the hits you were taking off the Kay-Dees.’

  Shade listened in horror. He wanted to yell at Shel to stop but his throat was too dry, too tight, the words piled up there.

  Denni read some more of his file. Her face filled with disgust.

  ‘So you went all-out to prove you had what it took. You risked everything to make good.’

  Creben threw his head back and laughed when the pad was waved under his nose.

  Shade stared at the rest of the squad in panic.

  ‘The Schirr assault on New Jersey seemed the perfect opportunity -’

  ‘That’s enough, ’ Shade shouted.

  Everyone turned and stared at him. Except Shel, who was focussed entirely on inputting some data to his palmscreen, still strapped into his couch like the rest.

  ‘What’s enough, Shadow?’ asked Denni, a trace of annoyance in her dark eyes.

  Shade shook his head, screwed up his eyes, willed himself not to fall asleep and start dreaming again. ‘Nothing. Sorry.’

  ‘Shadow’s losing it.’ Joiks wore a sly smile beneath his crooked nose. ‘Hey, stay with us, buddy. We need you.’

  ‘Yeah, any holes in the road, Denni’ll let you jump and see how deep they get,’ laughed Lindey.

  Shade forced a smile, turned away, tried to focus on what was real. He put his hand to his face, felt the hard lumps under the skin that still didn’t seem right or normal, even two years on. He listened to the mocking banter of the rest of the unit. Wondered what thoughts went through their minds at the words ‘active service’.

  III

  Shel fed the two Kill-Droids their sealed orders and activated their release program from the bridge. The only way Haunt knew that the creatures had vanished into the depths of the asteroid was when the squad viewed the pulverised packaging left behind.

  An hour later, Haunt sent her personnel off ship with a blast of orders and threats. Not even she was entirely sure which were which.

  They scrambled down the flexible ladders that stretched down from the bright ship into the dark, wet pit of the planetoid’s entry zone, their websets recording motion and emotion alike. Haunt led the commandos through the darkness until they came to a large circular chamber. Joiks immediately christened it the bullring. Five further tunnels had been drilled into the rock, stretching away into the dark.

  At Haunt’s command, the ten quickly split into groups of two. Haunt chose Shel to partner her, and directed each pair to take a different tunnel. The groups sprinted into the pitch-blackness, weighed down with torches and guns.

  Haunt checked her scanner. Multiple lights edged through its grids; the peak-level stats of her unit glowing brightly on a secret wavelength as they fanned out through the tunnels.

  Somewhere in the dark, things were hiding that wanted them dead.

  Haunt beckoned Shel to follow her and set off down the last remaining passageway.

  ‘Do you reckon Haunt’s OK?’ Denni asked Joiks as they picked their way through the rubble-strewn tunnel.

  Joiks came to a sudden halt. ‘You’re worried about her?’ he asked in disbelief, and tapped the metal band round his head. ‘You telling me this for her benefit, back at base debrief? Getting yourself some love from above...?’

  Denni pulled off her webset.

  Joiks stared at her in amazement. ‘What’s with you?

  Removing your webset -’

  ‘Brain scramble,’ Denni replied. She studied the workings in the band. ‘My stats sometimes throw out the frequency, give me migraine.’

  Joiks remembered hearing that had
happened to Denni once before on an exercise. A freak occurrence Haunt had said. What were the chances of it happening again, and on a live ammo shoot? The webset was off now. Denni could tell a dozen barefaced lies, and who’d know?

  She turned to him, cold and beautiful by torchlight. ‘Give me yours. I need to fix the frequency.’

  ‘Intermission,’ Joiks announced, and flicked the band over to her. ‘School’s out.’ He rubbed his hands through his close-cropped hair. He looked at her slyly. ‘So - what’s this really about? You don’t want the world to know you’ve always loved me? Everyone knows that, Den!’

  Denni grimaced. ‘Like I say, it’s Haunt. Something’s not right. What she did to Shade -’

  ‘Feelin’ sorry for your Earthborn ex? Awww.’

  ‘It was a little extreme, wouldn’t you say? And the way she blew up at you just for mentioning Morphiea.’

  ‘It’s a real-ammo exercise,’ Joiks said. ‘Aren’t you a little on edge?’

  ‘Of course I am. But should our CO be?’ Denni shook her head, answering her own dumb question. ‘We’re so close to Morphiean space... Too close. I think it’s too much for her.’

  ‘So she hates Morphieans. Hates their Spook guts. Seems a pretty good qualification for fighting them to me.’

  ‘Duh? They stopped her fighting them! After what she did on New Jersey -’

  Joiks scoffed. ‘They had it coming.’

  ‘And the human casualties.’

  ‘We’re at war. There gotta be casualties.’

  ‘Most of the ones she fried were repatriated. On our side.’

  ‘Still Schirr, still scum. Back in the Incendiaries we -’

  ‘Enlightened, Joiks.’ She kept her cool as usual. ‘All I’m saying is, we have to follow her orders here. But what if they turn out to be bad orders, Joiks? After what she’s been through -’

  ‘What is this, psychology?’ Joiks wasn’t sure if he was amused or disgusted. ‘She’s too involved in all this, is that what you’re saying?’ He spat on the floor. ‘She’s a good soldier, Denni.’

  ‘She was a great soldier.’ Denni bunched her slim fists. ‘All I’m saying is that her judgement may be shot because of her personal Involvement with all this crap.’

  ‘But you’re saying it just in private to me, not on the record? Trying to turn us against her one by one, is that it?

  Gee, that’s brave.’

  ‘Jesus, Joiks, she’s our CO.’ Denni sighed. ‘I’m not here just for the ride, I’m going career with the military. I want to

  live long enough to go career -’

  He took a step closer. Took a chance and put his hands on her shoulders. She gave him a small smile. There was a tiny nervous flicker in her eyes.

  ‘Hey, Den. You got the jitters? Is that what we’re really talking about here?’

  No,’ she said softly.

  ‘Thought Stellar Infantry were tough bitches?’ Joiks went on quietly, caressing her upper arms. You know, you got a problem with Haunt, you should’ve said before we got here.’

  ‘How was I to know we’d wind up training here?’ Denni took a step towards Joiks. ‘Listen. I’m going to talk to the others.

  If enough of us lodge a complaint against her... right now...

  Cellmek would listen to us, I know it.’

  So. She wanted something from him. Figured.

  ‘You want out of this mission,’ Joiks whispered softly.

  ‘Don’t you.’

  ‘I want it led by someone detached. For all our sakes.’ She moved closer to him.

  He laughed uneasily.

  She made eye contact again. Lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘See... you don’t know what we’re going up against here.’

  ‘And you do?’

  Denni nodded. ‘I reckon so. Bad, bad stuff, soldier.’

  Joiks looked at her just a few moments more. Something in her voice sent a chill through him. He let go of her arms and took his webset, held it just over his head.

  ‘If you’re done checking your frequency, let’s forget about this, OK? Concentrate on staying alive down here.’ He paused, chanced a smile. ‘And don’t worry. I can keep a secret.’

  Denni nodded. ‘I’m glad. Because so can I.’

  He watched her place the webset back over her dreadlocks and followed her into the darkness.

  IV

  Marshal Nadina Haunt moved quickly and freely, feeling a part of herself coming alive as she angled her gun into every corner of the thick shadows thrown up by her torch beam.

  But after a few minutes, the tunnel was becoming lighter, she was sure of it.

  She checked with Shel, who didn’t answer until he’d taken an environment scan. Exactly by the book as usual.

  He nodded at last. ‘Luminescence has increased by over five per cent.’

  ‘Source?’

  ‘Not known, Marshal.’

  Something ahead of them, high up above them, glistened silver in Haunt’s torchbeam. She raised her gun.

  ‘What is it, Shel?’

  Shel marched over to the side of the tunnel. His own light showed a damp, glistening morass of flat, slab-like leaves edging down the walls from the stone ceilings.

  ‘Some kind of climbing plant is growing here, Marshal,’ he reported. ‘The leaves have some slight luminous property.’

  ‘Nice to know we’re not being left entirely in the dark.’

  She moved off down the dank corridor in the rock.

  She only stopped when she and Shel came up against a set of ornately carved doors that appeared to have been made from gold.

  They swung open soundlessly as if awaiting Haunt’s touch.

  The space beyond was darker, but just as silent.

  Shel was looking at her, uneasily. Questioningly.

  Haunt nodded. ‘We go in.’

  Gripping their guns, Marshal Haunt and her adjutant moved cautiously through the doorway.

  V

  ‘So where are we, Doctor?’ asked Ben as the demented grinding and wailing of the TARDIS landing motors gradually died away.

  ‘I know where we are,’ the Doctor announced, ‘but I’m afraid I cannot pinpoint our location within that district.’ He was still playing with his switches, but vaguely, distractedly now. The way Ben’s dad used to try his luck fixing the family motor; when all else failed, fiddling with bits of engine he didn’t understand, just in case one of them magically started the car.

  Polly sighed. ‘Doctor, are you saying that you know we might be on Earth, say, but that you don’t know if we’re in Africa or Timbuktu?’

  Very neatly put, Polly, yes.’ The Doctor bestowed a warm smile on her. ‘Except, I’m afraid, we’re definitely in a galaxy very distant from the Earth’s. Very distant indeed.’

  ‘That narrows it down then,’ Ben remarked.

  The Doctor didn’t find the comment facetious. ‘Quite so, my boy, quite so. And we have landed inside a structure of some kind, of that I am sure. The temperature is very cold... and there’s no air, either. A vacuum.’ He looked up, deep in thought, tapping his chin. ‘An asteroid perhaps, too small to retain an atmosphere?’

  Polly turned up her long straight nose. ‘Sounds like fun.’

  ‘Well, it will be a good opportunity to field test the spacesuits. I’ve had them in storage for some time.’

  Ben frowned. ‘Spacesuits?’ He couldn’t imagine the Doctor in full Yuri Gagarin gear.

  ‘Oh yes, the TARDIS is very well equipped, you know.’ He chuckled and turned to Polly. ‘And they come in a range of colours, my dear.’

  Polly clapped her hands. ‘Fab!’

  ‘But we don’t know if it’s even safe out there,’ Ben protested.

  ‘Don’t fuss, my boy,’ said the Doctor. ‘I must take some readings, some measurements for the log... it shouldn’t take us very long...’

  VI

  Haunt turned to Shel. ‘Is all this part of the simulation?’

  Shel stared blankly back at her.

 
; ‘You programmed the tactical computers, fed through the droids’ orders. You must know something about the testing ground.’

  ‘The location was selected entirely by Pentagon Central,’

  Shel stated. ‘Were I to be given any advance knowledge of the simulation, it would be rendered less effective. I know as much as you do.’ He paused. ‘However, it seems to me that certain aspects of the architectural style would suggest a Schirr influence.’

  Haunt nodded. ‘Go on.’

  Shel shrugged. ‘Ruins found and reconstructed after the destruction of the northern continents share several of the features we have observed here.’

  The golden doors led onto a corridor, and were flanked by a set of large bronze double doors; neither of which they had been able to open. The corridor came to a kind of hall hollowed from the slates and silts of the asteroid’s mantle, palatial both in size and decoration, like some kind of ancient tomb for long-dead kings. The walls were jagged, gleaming damp and black in the glare of torchlight. Huge stone statues of abstract figures, vaguely humanoid, loomed out at them from the shadows. The fat, thick leaves of the faintly-glowing plant covered the ceilings. From out of the seaweed-like morass, tapestries of cut-glass hung down from the high-vaulted ceilings. They caught the torch beams and fooled with the bright light, passing it from shard to shard.

  ‘It would make sense to incorporate Schirr architecture in the testing ground’s design,’ Shel commented. ‘DeCaster and Pallemar’s dissenters are the only significant threat to Earth’s empire besides the Morphiean Quadrant. It makes the battleground more relevant.’ He paused. ‘If we knew anything of Morphiean constructs, Pentagon Central would doubtless have drawn inspiration from them...’

  Haunt was no longer listening to Shel. Instead she checked for team vitals on her scanner.

  And swore.

  The grid, instead of showing four neat pinprick pairs glowing close to those of herself and Shel, was an insane constellation of lights.

  She waved it in Shel’s face. ‘Must be a fault. Try your own.’

  Shel scrolled through different screens until the same lunatic pattern of lights appeared. He met Haunt’s gaze steadily. It would seem this entire place is alive.’