“They do indeed,” Makali Pillay said. “And they’re not just impressions in soil. They’re moist, as if they were made by creatures that just crawled out of the primordial ooze.”
“Revenants, fresh from the incubator,” Zack said. “They’ve been resurrected, just like their human counterparts.”
“Mmm-hmm. And big ones, too. Like that cow you saw.”
“Wherever it went. Not just walking creatures, either,” Zack said. “I was pretty sure I saw some birds.”
What was beginning to matter to Dale was the nature of this particular mission. He had automatic, permanent issues with Zack Stewart. Now he was growing quite unhappy with the Indo-Aussie woman, Makali, who had apparently decided she was Miss World NEO Explorer. Her incessant, chirpy observations about the rocks and soil and sky and temperature were no doubt accurate and helpful...if you gave a shit.
Which Dale most definitely did not. Not that he had a great alternative plan; getting away from the Temple, where the two available activities were (a) collecting food and (b) cleaning up—well, this little walkabout was a fine way to kill a morning.
But he was getting hungry and saw little prospect of a meal any time soon. He felt sure that the Beehive wasn’t going to turn out to be the Keanu version of McDonald’s.
A thought struck him. “Hey,” he said, “do you suppose we could eat that cow?”
“It would be smarter to use it for milk,” Wade Williams said. “We do have a baby, don’t we?”
“Fine,” Dale said. “Do you suppose we could eat a cow or the second one we find? Assuming we find any cow, of course.” He turned to Makali. “Apologies if that offends your religious sensibilities.”
“I’m not Hindu,” she said. “But thanks for asking.”
“Why couldn’t we?” Valya said.
“Are you worried that a Revenant animal might be poisonous?”
Dale said, “I’m more worried that it’s just useless. Not nutritious.”
“You mean, literal empty calories,” Williams said.
“No,” Zack said. “I believe that the whole Keanu system proves that matter and energy are never lost. They are just arranged in different states. If we cook and eat cow meat we find here, I’m willing to bet it’s just like doing it on Earth.”
“Well,” Williams said, “it seems to have worked with the plants we’ve consumed.”
“So far,” Dale said. “Our bellies are full...but are we getting the vitamins and minerals we need?”
The others glanced at each other. Zack shrugged. “There’s not much we can do about it. And there’s the Beehive.” He and Makali trotted ahead, leaving Dale with Valya and Williams.
The sci-fi writer turned to Dale. “You are just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you?”
The entrance to the Beehive was a classic cave mouth. The opening was roughly three meters high and half a dozen wide, though irregular. The ground was churned up, muddy. “It looks like a herd went through here,” Williams said.
“Or came out of there,” Dale said. “And did some fighting on the way.” The edges were streaked with some kind of yellowish goo, and in one case a reddish substance that Dale took to be blood.
Makali picked at the wall. “You’re right,” she said to Dale, holding out her finger. “Animal fur.”
“Great.”
“Well, folks,” Zack said, “our choices are stand here...or go inside.”
He voted with his feet and disappeared into the mouth, followed closely by Makali and Williams. Even Valya seemed eager to enter the chamber.
Dale had no choice but to follow.
It opened up once you got past the entrance—indeed, the Beehive was as big as a small warehouse inside—though the ground still squished, and there was a horrific smell of blood, shit, and urine.
Nevertheless, Dale was impressed by the rows of chambers rising around him...all shapes and sizes, from shoebox to piano crate. All but a few gave off enough yellow light to provide illumination. Most were still sealed, their sides encased in what appeared to be thick plastic. Some were newly opened, though, with moist, squishy fragments of the sealant spilling onto the dirt floor. “I don’t remember it being this big,” Zack said.
“All the walls seem to keep changing,” Williams said. “Why should your Beehive be any different?”
“And this section here is all new,” Zack said, pointing to the larger units.
“New in the past four days?” Makali said. Zack nodded. “Well, I guess we know this is an active site.”
“The question,” Wade Williams said, “is why? Is Keanu just creating some kind of Noah’s Ark? Replicating two of every kind of animal?”
“They started with Pogo Downey,” Zack said quietly. He moved off several steps. Downey had been a member of Zack’s Destiny team and was an old colleague of Dale Scott’s. He hadn’t realized that Pogo had died and been turned into a Revenant.
“Does that mean we’ll see that Bynum character again?” Williams asked.
Dale had to remind himself: the man Zhao had gunned down.
“Don’t think such things,” Valya hissed.
At one end of the Beehive, a passage led elsewhere.
“Where does this lead?” Makali said, clearly eager to explore further.
“That was how we entered the Beehive and the habitat from Vesuvius Vent,” Zack said. “Allowing for the fact that it all might have changed, there’s a decent-sized tunnel that runs probably twenty-five meters to a kind of airlock. We called it the Membrane.”
“I have to see this,” Makali said. Without waiting, she vanished down the other passage. Zack said, “Maybe some of us should wait here.”
“Great,” Dale said, “I vote for anyone but me.” It wasn’t a sense of adventure that drove him; it was the desire to walk on dry ground.
He caught up with Makali quickly. And Zack was right behind him.
The tunnel was just like the Beehive proper, only smaller. There were yellow chambers here, mostly small ones, though not all. And no inactive or recently opened ones.
Zack said, “These weren’t here before.”
After two mild turns, they reached the end of the passage. There were chambers here, too, at least a dozen of them, all human-sized, all open. What drew Dale’s attention, though, was a shimmering curtain that seemed composed of plastic bubbles.
“This is the Membrane,” Zack said.
“What’s beyond it?” Makali said.
“Vacuum. A big passageway, the base of Vesuvius Vent. A ramp and the surface.”
“And the wreckage of Venture and Brahma,” Dale said. Zack didn’t react.
Makali approached the Membrane, reaching out for it. “Is this all right?”
“I don’t think you can hurt it by touching it. Or vice versa,” Zack said.
“Too bad we don’t have EVA suits.”
“We’ve got pieces of one,” Dale said. “But, seriously, what good would it do?”
“Well,” Makali said, “just for science, I’d like to get another look at that Marker Zack and Pogo found on their way in. We got imagery, but we didn’t get close to solving it. And I think it held a lot of important information.”
Dale tuned out of the conversation. His eye had been drawn to a chamber a few meters back...the largest in this part of the tunnel.
As he watched with paralyzed fascination, the yellow side bulged and split, unleashing a torrent of fluid that spilled on the ground—and revealing a large snake-shaped creature that seemed to be wrapped in oilskin. “Zack!” Dale shouted.
The creature immediately began thrashing around like a cat in a bag. Now Dale saw that it had appendages—four short ones. It was vocalizing, too, though the cries were muffled.
Zack arrived, with Makali a step behind. “Give it room!” he shouted.
Dale retreated back toward the Beehive proper. Williams and Valya had come to investigate. “Stay behind me,” he ordered.
The creature scraped its hands or feet on the wal
l of chambers, and savagely rubbed its head, too, peeling the covering from its mouth and eyes. Dale wondered what damage and pain the process caused—
But such concerns vanished when he recognized the creature. “Is that a fucking crocodile?”
The general size, shape, and snout suggested so. The animal flopped on the ground, writhing again, working to continue peeling away the covering.
It gave Zack a chance to slip past, joining Dale, Williams, and Valya. “Makali,” he said. “Come on!”
Makali was slow to react. “Don’t study the fucking thing,” Dale said. “Get over here!”
Before she could reach them, however, the creature roared and snapped to attention.
It looked at Zack, dismissed him, then, long tail swishing, turned toward Makali. “Give it some room!” Zack shouted.
Easier said than done, Dale thought. Especially since the croc started slithering toward Makali.
The Aussie woman retreated, but Dale knew she didn’t have a lot of room...and she had no way out. “Please do something!” Valya said, grabbing Dale’s arm.
In fact, they had nothing, could do nothing, except stay several meters behind the croc—which was now making terrifying guttural noises—as it stalked Makali.
Zack was looking at the various pods around them. “Goddammit, about half of these look ready to pop—”
“We can’t leave,” Dale said, wishing with all his might that they could.
“Why is Keanu doing this?” Valya said.
“Who knows?” Dale said. Valya’s tendency to whine and moan was the major reason he had stopped seeing her, a close second only to his desire to sleep with younger women.
Zack was grim. “Dale, I want you to call Harley Drake. Let him know, uh, he’s got a lot of company heading his way.”
Dale had just reached for the Tik-Talk when he and the others heard a horrific thrashing from down the passage. “Oh, God!” Valya said.
“Shit.” Dale could see Zack steeling himself. Then he plunged forward, on the trail of the croc and Makali. Dale followed. It was dangerous and stupid, but better than hanging back and doing nothing.
When they reached the end of the line, the passage just this side of the Membrane, they saw the rear half of the croc, still in its flaking second skin, sticking out of a large Revenant pod.
Fresh fluid covered the ground...and in the middle lay a large wrapped-up creature that could have been a cow or a big dog. It wasn’t moving, though. “Where is Makali?” Zack said.
“I’m guessing inside that chamber,” Dale said. “She probably ripped it open, pulled out what was inside—”
Valya and Williams reached them. All four crowded against the farthest reach of the passage as the croc suddenly thrashed its way out of the open pod, tail whipping so close to Dale’s face that he felt the breeze.
The croc uttered a series of snorts and snaps and then, to Dale’s amazement, turned away from them and skittered up the tunnel, heading away from the Membrane and toward the Beehive proper, and likely the habitat beyond.
Zack was already diving into the damaged chamber, calling, “Makali!”
But only for a few seconds. Covered with slime, he backed out of the chamber, gagging and gasping for breath. Valya and Dale used their shirts to wipe his face.
“Is she in there?” Williams said.
“Didn’t see her. It opens up, but it’s dark and filled with...” He didn’t need to finish the statement: filled with fluid.
“What happened to her?” Valya edged toward the chamber and gingerly stuck her head in. Like Zack, she couldn’t tolerate more than a few seconds.
“Makali!” Zack shouted. The effort was too much for him; he began coughing, spitting up fluid.
Williams turned to Dale. “Think your phone works here?”
“Worth a try,” he said, still unconvinced that calling the Temple had any value beyond spreading bad news.
He had it in his hands when Williams said suddenly, “Oh dear merciful God!”
He pointed at the Membrane behind them. It was rippling like a sea in a storm. As one, the four of them backed away from it.
“Something’s coming through...” Valya said.
The Membrane parted, and a human-sized creature wrapped head to toe in a yellowish covering emerged.
It seemed to have trouble walking and seemed fatter than a human, with thick masses around its waist.
But then it raised its right hand.
And Dale heard a muffled but all-too-human voice, complete with Aussie accent, saying “It’s me! Makali!”
Zack immediately tried to free Makali from the second skin, but she pushed him away. “Don’t!”
“When I found Megan she had to get out of that—”
“It’s different,” Makali said. She turned and pointed to the Membrane. “I was out there, in vacuum! It’s some kind of protective suit. I can breathe. I can see.” Each statement was accompanied by broad gestures. “I’m pretty comfortable.”
“How the hell did you get into it?” Williams said.
Makali pointed at the reincarnation pod the croc had torn open. “I crawled in there and kicked through to the next one. Fell into it, actually.” Dale heard a terrible coughing sound, then realized it was Makali laughing. “I thought I was drowning!”
“What did you see on the other side?” Dale asked.
“Not much; I didn’t get far: a big, symmetrical cavern.” She nodded at Zack. “Rover tracks.”
“How long do you propose to stay in that outfit?” Zack said.
“As long as it will support me,” Makali said. “I’d like to go back through the Membrane.”
“Not by yourself, you aren’t. Sorry. We can try this some other time—”
“Can you feel that?” Wade Williams was holding his hand at the opening of the shattered pod. “Airflow.”
“Going in or going out?” Dale said, not liking the first thought that came to his mind.
“Out.”
Zack stepped up. So did Dale. Everyone felt the same thing...air being sucked from the tunnel, the Beehive, and possibly the habitat, into the open space of the tunnel beyond.
“We need to seal this,” Zack said.
“Fuck that,” Dale said. He had no interest in any of this, or in remaining here in a very dangerous place. But Valya shrieked again, and Dale knew that this was not her standard startled shriek.
This was terror.
Two freshly revenanted cows were thundering toward them down the narrow passage, driven toward them by, from the sounds of it, the croc.
The creatures were all stuck at the moment, thrashing, fighting, eating and being eaten.
And in the process destroying the passage. Dale could feel his ears pop, a very bad sign in a chamber separated from vacuum only by what appeared to be a meter of vegetative material mixed with rock.
“What do we do?” Valya said. The shriek had gone out of her; she was plaintive, almost helpless.
“Everyone pick a pod,” Zack said. He turned to the nearest one and began clawing at it.
“What are you suggesting?” Williams said.
“Do what I did!” Makali shouted. She was already helping Valya, though her efforts were hampered by the thick skinsuit “gloves” she wore.
And it was getting hard to hear. Dale’s ears ached.
He needed no further encouragement. Shoving the Tik-Talk into his waistband, he commenced his own clawing at the nearest pod large enough to hold a human-sized item.
“We’re going to die in these things!” Williams said, unnecessarily.
“Possibly,” Zack snapped. “But you’re going to die for sure out here.”
The last sounds Dale heard, other than the horrific squeals and crunches of two animals in mortal combat, was a series of rips and gushes as four reincarnation pods spilled open, followed by the thud of whatever lay inside hitting the ground.
“Good luck, everybody!” he shouted, and dived into the dark, moist suffocating sp
ace.
ZHAO
After four days of life in the Keanu habitat, Zhao realized that he had finally found the one environment he hated more than India.
It was a shame that he had had to travel four hundred thousand kilometers to experience it. The light was wrong; the companions were not of his choosing; the food was limited to non-existent. There was nothing to read, nothing to watch, nothing to study. He could perform calisthenics if he wished, but he enjoyed more structured physical activities like golf and tennis. There were few potential sexual partners and zero potential sexual venues and opportunities.
He had no tasks, no useful work.
And he was the only criminal around.
He had not been mistreated; far from it. He had been treated exactly like everyone else...which, of course, was a form of mistreatment.
He had taken his turn with the gathering of food, though always in isolation. Even if he hadn’t carried a virtual mark of Cain, as the only Asian in the population, he stood out. The Houston group shunned him; the Bangalores simply pretended he didn’t exist.
The only benefit was that this position allowed him the opportunity to observe.
Observation one: The activation of the Temple under Nayar, Jones, Weldon, and Drake was proceeding in almost comic fashion.
Zhao had managed to join the throng that surged into the Temple once its walls and floors had rearranged themselves to more human proportions. Unlike most of the others, he had stuck around. His initial impression—marvelous! If he hadn’t already been impressed with the Architects’ mastery of molecular manufacturing, he would have thought their mechanical engineering to be the most fascinating thing he had ever seen...allowing for some obvious anomalies that hinted at a system on the verge of a breakdown. (But he should withhold judgment on that issue; what, really, did he know of these Architects and their motives?)
No, for the better part of an hour, he simply lurked in the corner of the main floor of the Temple, amused by the sudden, inexplicable changes in lighting and bursts of loud noise. It all reminded him of a long drunken evening with a potential source in a Hong Kong nightclub.
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