Wanda

by carl smothers

  “The creatures that attacked us look like a cross between a small dinosaur and a praying mantis. They’re about ten feet high and have a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and three-inch claws. They hunt in packs and are very effective killers. We’ve also had a run-in with a gigantic man eating plant. Both Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Forrester were wounded by it, but they’re okay. A mantis killed Private Martin when he tried to save Dr. Forrester. Over.”

  “I’m anxious to get you off that planet. When do you think you’ll reach the deposit site? Over.”

  “First thing in the morning. I’ll contact you again as soon as we complete the survey. Over.”

  “Take precautions and keep safe. By the way, tell Dr. Stevenson that Dr. Kimberly has located five of the six pulsars he was looking for, and the wormhole is still inactive. I’ll try to let Knuckles know your status. Over.”

  “Thank you, Captain. Tobey out.”

  The nocturnal shift filled the night with howls, and roars. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be heading their way. Screams and vicious growls sounded as predators made kills. In the distance, a volcano thundered, shaking the ground and the sky lit up repeatedly from huge lightening strikes.

  Harry lay in his makeshift bed listening to the sounds of the nighttime jungle. It gives me the shivers just thinking about the hell prowling around out there. A person wouldn’t last long if he got separated from the others.

  Donovan was acting as rear guard about ten meters behind the encampment. The humidity was so dense she felt like she was in a steam bath, and her clothes stuck to her skin. A faint odder wafted by her nose. Phew, it smells like a rotten carcass. Mantises had been roaming around her position since her watch began. She heard a big animal moving through the brush close to her position. One of those things is probably coming back to eat the rest of its kill, she thought. The jungle noise stopped abruptly and things got deadly quiet — as it does when a predator is prowling around for something to eat. She heard a strange rustling noise. What the hell is that?

  Suddenly, about three feet away, a black, fifteen-foot, snake-like creature reared up and looked her in the face. As its head moved back and forth, its tongue darted in-and-out to smell what it hoped would be dinner. Donovan slowly pulled out her combat knife, her eyes locked on the snake.

  If I shoot this bastard, I’ll draw the mantises in. This is going to be a one-on-one. Okay cocksucker, let’s boogie.

  The snake spit liquid, splattering her goggles. Trying to blind me, you mother fucker?

  It then struck, its four-inch fangs bared and dripping with venom. Donovan instinctively grabbed the snake just below its head with her free hand before the fangs hit their target.

  The snake quickly wrapped itself around her in preparation for swallowing its prey. The two rolled around in the bush. She gritted her teeth to keep from yelling. It had her knife arm pinned, and she struggled with all her might to keep its fangs off her face.

  Each time she exhaled, the constrictor tightened its hold. The snake continued to lunge at her. It was all she could do to keep it from sinking its fangs into her. The constrictor slowly tightened its grip. It got harder and harder to breathe.

  You son of a bitch. You might eat me, but not before I get a piece of your ass. Man, this bastards strong. Gotta get my knife free or I can kiss my ass goodbye.

  It was almost impossible to breathe. She struggled to free her knife arm, while simultaneously struggling to keep the snake’s fangs away. Donovan began to tire. She had to do something and fast, or it was all over.

  With great effort, she freed her knife arm and stabbed it. The snake tried desperately to bite her. They rolled, and the snake lunged repeatedly at her and spit venom in her face as she stabbed it with her knife. Her strength was waning rapidly. She knew she couldn’t fight it off much longer. With her last ounce of strength, she stabbed it as hard as she could. I think I’m done for. She felt the blade hit bone, slice trough and the snake fell limp.

  “Holy shit,” Donovan muttered. She lay there for a while to catch her breath. Exhausted and pissed off.

  After a few minutes, she rolled over and pulled the fifteen-foot snake creature from around her body, cut off its huge head and stuck it in her pack.

  I have a plan for this, she thought, near hysteria, giggling in relief that she survived.

  Chapter 45

  Just before dawn, the shooting and yelling started again. The mantises had attacked T Bone’s position. He fired at them with full auto and threw impulse grenades. The mantis creatures charged him, forcing him to retreat to camp.

  Everyone jumped up and started shooting at the animals. They killed three, but a big hungry pack of twenty or more attacked the camp. The men threw grenades, killing several others. Finally, the creatures broke off and headed back into the jungle.

  The men sat motionless waiting for the next attack. After what seemed like an eternity, the major signaled all clear and the team gathered around.

  “Guys, I don’t think they’re going to be back for awhile — besides they’ll be more interested in eating the dead ones. We need to press on to the deposit site. By my calculations, we’re only about thirty meters out. Let’s keep our guard up and move as quietly and quickly as possible.”

  The Sergeant Major took charge. “Okay, people, you heard the man. Saddle up and move out. Keep sharp. Donovan, you and Long take point — ten meters.”

  Harry’s eyes burned from sweat, and his ears hurt from the loud noises of the assault weapons and animal roars. He had been afraid of using earplugs for fear he might not hear some monster sneaking up behind him. He watched Ronnie rub his ears, open, and close his mouth to try and clear the pain. He, along with everyone else, looked fatigued and worn. Their clothing was dirty, ripped, torn and soaked with perspiration. His wounds ached, and it hurt to walk. He took one of the pain pills.

  Harry was almost overjoyed when they broke through the jungle at the deposit site. A small range of jagged hills about five hundred meters high and thirty kilometers long greeted them. Harry and Ronnie looked at each other in disbelief. This had to be the largest deposit of Selenium crystals ever discovered.

  They sat for a while then unpacked their instruments and began to take readings. The hills were full of the stuff and better yet, it would be easy to mine, once they took care of the animal danger. It was impossible to try to estimate the value of this find. With the guards on full alert, Harry and Ronnie walked up and down the hills and took samples. It proved to be extremely high-grade ore.

  Other rare minerals also began to register on their instruments. Harry was amazed. From the looks of things, this place really is a Mineral Planet. Just as Scott said, this must be the most valuable piece of real estate in the galaxy. If people get greedy there could be some serious wars fought over this place.

  When they collected the last samples, they walked up to Tobey. “Looks like we’re all done, Major,” Harry reported.

  Tobey stared up at the sky, obviously worried about what he saw. “Has anyone looked at the sky lately?”

  The sky had a menacing ugly color. The thunder sounded like cannons as lightning bolts bounced back and forth between the voluminous reddish grey clouds. After a few minutes, a bolt struck the ground and trees with devastating results. The top of a large tree blew off as though someone had planted explosive charges around the trunk.

  The sound of the strike was shrill and deafening, and everyone dropped to the ground to avoid the debris. Harry fell, but didn’t escape the splinters. The wood in the trunk of the tree curled in an s-like shape from the extreme current that had flowed through it.

  The intensity of the lightning increased and it worried Harry. The electrical storms on Earth didn’t compare to these. The ground literally shook when the giant electrical discharges struck it.

  Harry closed his eyes. His arm ached from the large splinters resting an inch deep in his flesh. Droplets of blood oozed out of the wounds. Harry pulled the splinters out and winched from the pain. He
bit his cheek to stay quiet. As he lay there, he remembered something he had discovered during the survey. “Major, there’s a cave about twenty meters from here in the side of the hills. Maybe we can take shelter there.”

  “Team, let’s head for the cave. Lead the way, Doc.”

  Harry pulled himself up. His ears buzzed, his legs and feet throbbed like hell from the multitude of cuts. Blood spotted through the bandages on his leg. Stumbling like a drunk, he led the team toward sanctuary. He needed another pain pill.

  The entrance to the cave was small. Once through, it opened into a large cavern running back into the bowels of the hill. The end of the large chamber was beyond the range of the flashlights and looked like the ominous blackness of the grave.

  “Let’s camp in here until the storm lets up,” Tobey ordered. “If Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Forrester have the samples they need. It’s close to evening, so I recommend we head back to the Oriskany in the morning.”

  “We have what we need,” Harry replied, grimacing as he poured a disinfectant on his wounds. I’m glad to be inside and not having the worry about being killed by a lightning strike. He took another pain pill.

  “Having a problem there, Harry?” Ronnie joked.

  “Hey, bud, you’re next.”

  “I know. I’m looking forward to it. I always did like pain. Can I have one of those pills?” Ronnie asked. “That plant ripped my feet up, and I’m having a hard time walking. Guess I should have taken the pills when the Sergeant Major offered them.”

  “Here, have a few. They help believe me. We’re both going to need them when we head back in the morning.”

  “Morning won’t be too soon for me. Sure wish Knuckles could drop over and pick us up. He’d never find a place to land, though. Too bad.” Ronnie ran his hand through his dirty hair. “Man, I’ve never been this filthy and cut up. Let’s get some coffee going.”

  Corporal Rodriquez called over to the Sergeant Major. “I need to take a leak.”

  “Okay, but don’t go far. We don’t know what’s in this cave.”

  “Don’t worry, Sergeant Major. I’m sure as hell not going sightseeing.”

  “Better take someone with you, just in case. Anyone else need to go?”

  “I do,” T Bone replied.

  “Don’t screw around and get back here quick.”

  Rodriguez and T Bone headed back into the cave, shining their rifle mounted lights around and hoping they wouldn’t see anything.

  “Man, taking a dump has never been this spooky,” Rodriquez, said.

  “Let’s hurry and find a spot. I don’t like this dark ass cave.”

  Something that had not eaten for a very long time watched as they approached its hole. Its big jaws smacked together and the creature drooled as it anticipated the meals coming straight to it.

  When they got close enough, the thing jumped, knocked T Bone to the ground and then grabbed Rodriquez forcing the weapon out of his hands. He screamed from the sickening sight of the thing that held him close to its fangs.

  T Bone tried to shoot the thing’s legs. His light was broken and the ambient lighting so poor he couldn’t get a clean shot. The creature moved around fast trying to bite Rodriquez. Everyone heard the cries, and ran towards the sound.

  The monster was a cross between a giant spider and a scorpion. Ten-feet in length, with six, black, furry legs, an hourglass green body covered with yellow prickly fur, and a big stinger on the end of its six-foot long, shiny black segmented tail. Four huge orange eyes and two eight-inch fangs decorated its head. Four grabber arms, terminating in pincher-like razor sharp claws protruded from the sides of its mouth, held Rodriguez in preparation for the bite that would finish him off.

  Rodriquez screamed for help at the top of his lungs. Cursing and thrashing around he tried to avoid the fangs of this devil. He stabbed at the creature with his knife, trying to cut an arm off and escape. The hungry animal was not about to let him go. It would eat him, bones and all.

  When the soldiers arrived, they were horrified at what they saw. Rodriquez was in the monsters grasp, fighting to avoid its fangs, yelling and screaming.

  The creature moved rapidly making it next to impossible to get a clean shot without possibly hitting Rodriquez.

  Suddenly, Rodriquez cried out in agony as the scorpion-thing sank its giant fangs into his body. It injected its highly toxic venom, and then stung him with the big stinger on the end of its tail. Rodriquez let out one final, painful scream, and then fell limp.

  The animal, having secured its meal, rapidly crawled into its hole, carrying Rodriquez with him. The soldiers ran up and shot down into the hole. Their rounds were having no effect. The creature’s lair was deep, with many twists and turns.

  The Sergeant Major headed for the edge of the hole, sat down and prepared to drop down and try to get Rodriquez. Tobey grabbed him before he could jump.

  “Sergeant Major, it’s too late. We can’t help Rod, and I don’t want to lose you, too. Come on. We have to get the team back to the front of the cave.”

  “Sir, I have to try and kill that bastard.” He then threw several impulse grenades into the hole. The sides of the creature’s den caved in. It gave Douglas some satisfaction that that there would be no way for him to get out any time soon.

  “Maybe we couldn’t help Rod, but I hope we killed that son of a bitch,” the Sergeant Major said. “I hate to lose anyone, especially to a fucking bug. I hope I killed your lousy ass!” he yelled down the hole.

  Reluctantly, the team left the bug hole and returned to the mouth of the cave to mourn their fallen comrade, and wait out the storm.

  So much death and mayhem left Harry with a sense of shock. He never dreamed his project would be so dangerous and cost so many fine people their lives. It saddened him to think about the losses. Strangely, as with Lieutenant Jones, he felt responsible and knew these deaths would haunt him for a long time.

  How many more of us have to die before we can get off this horrible world?

  Without the wormhole there’s no way back; we’re all gonna die

  Chapter 46

  STL Mission Control

  Wormhole Development Facility

  New Mexico

  The MCC team faced a fearful and mystifying challenge. Orion and her crew were lost in space — marooned somewhere within the 600,000 trillion miles of the Milky Way. Something had deleted the flight history registry, leaving no obvious way to trace Orion’s flight path or give them a clue as to the last known coordinates of the wormhole before it shut down. It seemed like a problem with no solution. The implications spelled disaster for the team and the Orion.

  Pepper sat at her console, frustrated and desperate to find an answer. She and sleep had not been close companions since the start of the catastrophe. Every strategy they tried led to a dead end.

  Marc walked over. “Pepper, you look worn out. We’re all extremely concerned about the guys, but we’ll make errors if we get too tired. Please, get some rest. I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m not going to quit until I know what’s going on! We’ve run diagnostics on all subsystems, conducted every virus and malware analysis routine in existence — signature matching, heuristic and polymorphic analysis, and still no joy. I know it’s there. We just can’t find it. I’m not going to quit until we solve this.”

  “Don’t push yourself too hard. Have you talked to Wanda? I’m sure she can help you.”

  “Not for a while.”

  Mark patted her on the shoulder then returned to his console.

  Pepper typed in code W234 to see if Wanda had discovered anything. Wanda appeared immediately.

  “Yes, Pepper?”

  “Have you found any clues about the problems we’re having?”

  “I’ve analyzed the system and come to the same conclusion as you. We’re fighting a very unique and intelligent virus. We haven’t been able to isolate it, because it hides when we initiate any detection process. I’ve worked in the background until now
, so I wouldn’t interfere with your testing. If you concur, I’ll take control of the analysis and conduct a full-scale investigation.”

  “Please do, I’m at my wits end. We need help. Our people are stranded and we don’t know where they are, if they’re in trouble, hurt, or dead. I’m about to come unglued. I can’t take much more of this stress.”

  “I’ll get right on it. Don’t worry, we’ll bring our guys back home. No virus is going to outsmart me.”

  Pepper relaxed a bit. If anyone can crack this mystery, it’s Wanda.

  Wanda entered the strange and exotic world of cyberspace — her domain. It was a gigantic network of interconnected quantum operations, circuits performing trillions of mathematical and logical instructions per nanosecond, and exchanging information. Data streams, characterized by quantum packets, propagated at the speed of light through a multitude of fiber optics highways, orchestrating operations throughout the system. To the casual observer, a confusing matrix of light-based interchanges and transfers traveling in all directions, like a star burst, and millions of lights of different colors blinking on and off in random succession — beyond human comprehension. To Wanda it was home; no more confusing to her than to a pedestrian on a busy city street.

  Wanda linked up with the scanners and redirected their efforts. They then began the tedious task of data pattern analysis, signature analysis, dissecting suspicious codes, and executing multiple methods of heuristic analysis, some of which had never existed before.

  Chameleon detected the scanners, decomposed and hid — very effectively.

  Harry said think out of the box, and consider something that had never been done before. It’s obvious conventional methodologies are not going to work. I think I have an idea. If I use a combination of convolution and correlation analysis on the data byte patterns, I might find a clue. We’ll have to examine trillions of bytes of data, but I don’t think there’s any other way .There has to be a kernel. I’d bet there’s something in its code that will give us a clue.