Aliens

by Jonathan Maberry

  He had assumed at first that Bates’s odd behavior and apparent thick-headedness were the result of long-term drug use. But as he spent more time with Bates—time that was, for the most part, blissfully free of interaction with any of the other inmates, which was the way Jaeger liked it—he came to see that the big guy was about as dumb as a bag of hair, that was all. He had never used drugs. In spite of his size and intimidating appearance—he had close-cropped, bright-red hair, vaguely simian features on his heavily-freckled face, with tiny ears, deep-set eyes, and permanent tooth extensions forming small tusks that curled upward from between his big, lumpy lips, mediocre dental work at best—he was as meek as a kitten, with a childlike personality. A damaged child with foggy memories of bad things he knew he had done but could not recall in any detail, but vivid memories of the bad things that had been done to him. And there had been a host of those in a childhood that had been a steady stream of abuse from a cruel and hateful mother.

  At first, Jaeger had dismissed Bates’s stories about being a guinea pig for MetCon. Bates cowered in terror whenever he saw the MetCon logo on a magazine screen or video ad. Jaeger had assumed that the poor, pathetic guy had concocted those stories to fill the foggy spaces in his broken memory and at some point had convinced himself they were true.

  But he heard whispers from others. They avoided him when he was with Bates, which was most of the time, but they could not be together every second, and sometimes he heard whispers. In the cafeteria, they said that Bates’s meek-as-a-kitten personality changed drastically and abruptly when he was threatened or afraid. He became violent, dangerous. Some said his personality was not all that changed, that sometimes his physical appearance was altered, his size and even the color of his skin. That sudden change in behavior had landed him in solitary more than once, and the injured and dead he left behind ensured that he never would leave the Tartarus.

  Jaeger saw the change for himself only once when a piece of fresh meat on the Tartarus had decided to pick a fight with the biggest guy there with a few smartass remarks. The wrong remarks. It had happened so quickly and there had been so much screaming and blood and chaos that the whole thing had remained blurry in Jaeger’s mind. Ever since then, he had never been quite certain of what he had seen, but he could no longer dismiss all of Bates’s stories about his troubled youth and his nightmarish experience with MetCon.

  He learned that the others stayed away from Bates not only because they were afraid of his size and strength; they were afraid of accidentally offending him, unintentionally pissing him off. Bates was so godawful dumb that he often misunderstood things he was told or misinterpreted the behavior of others; he always assumed the worst and took offense easily. After witnessing the sudden, blurry slaughter of the last guy who had pissed Bates off with a couple of smartass remarks about his mother, nobody wanted to take any chances.

  The whole thing made him wonder how much truth was in Bates’s stories, and if so, that made him wonder exactly what the hell MetCon had done to him. “Haxon-K,” he would say, sometimes repeating it quietly in his lower bunk at night, either in his sleep or while lying awake in the dark. That was the name of the drug he said they were testing on him, the drug that did such terrible things to him, though he was unable to give specifics.

  The more he thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed that someone as empty-headed as Jack could concoct a story like that.

  Jaeger felt sorry for him. He was what Jaeger’s mother used to call a “mental inebriate.” Whatever had caused it, though, obviously had not been Bates’s own doing, and he suspected that the traumatic physical, sexual, and psychological abuse he had grown up with probably had a lot to do with it. For that reason, and because, in spite of everything he had done and was capable of doing, Bates seemed to have a big, childlike heart, Jaeger felt sorry for him.

  For Enzo Jaeger that was extraordinary. Pity was something he rarely, if ever, felt.

  He had no time to navel-gaze, though, and shifted his thoughts to the present situation. They had been pounded by the moon’s raging winds since arriving, until about ten minutes ago when they got beyond the storm wall that protected Hadley’s Hope from the endless onslaught. It made walking easier, but it did nothing to give them shelter from the drenching rain or jagged bolts of lightning that lit up the dark-gray sky and sometimes struck the ground or one of the tortured stone formations that twisted up toward the sky. Jaeger had an old buddy named Lupo who had gone straight and was currently working heavy equipment in the very shake-and-bake colony that was sprawled before them now. He hoped that Lupo would help him get a ship that would take him and Jack even farther away from the Tartarus. If Lupo would not help, then they would simply take what they needed on their own.

  But something was wrong. As they made their way around a corner of the complex, Jaeger’s skin suddenly felt tighter on his body, as if it were shrinking, an alarm signal that always sharpened his attention. He saw something to his left that bothered him before he understood why.

  A big Daihotai tractor stood halfway through a bay door. In the slashing rain, the tractor’s 8x8 wheel arrangement made it look like some kind of hulking mechanical monster. It was the kind of vehicle his buddy Lupo would be operating and repairing in the colony. But it was still and silent. As he and Jack fully rounded that corner, he saw that the tractor was unoccupied and the big metal bay door had slammed down on it from above.

  When Jaeger stopped, Bates did, too, and stood beside him, waiting for him to say something.

  “This doesn’t look good,” he said. “But we’ve gotta get in there. Hold your fire until I say. You got that, Jack?”

  “Got it, Enzo, got it.”

  Jaeger’s muscles tensed as he neared the open bay door and his heart throbbed in his neck. He leaned forward for one of those heartbeats, then withdrew again after getting a quick but clear look through the bay door. He saw no people or movement and heard no sounds from inside. There was no sign of life at all. Someone would have approached them by now. Combined with the bay door being closed on the abandoned tractor, things did not look good to Jaeger.

  “Why’s it so empty?” Bates whispered.

  “Good question. Eyes and ears open, now, you got it?”

  “Yep.”

  As they passed beneath the half-closed bay door, Bates had to duck a bit to avoid bumping his head.

  Once inside, they slid back their helmet faceplates. Jaeger felt cold, damp air on his face as he looked around.

  Tractors were lined up in rows to the left, with rows of Power Loaders to the right, all surrounded by crates and other equipment. It seemed to Jaeger that if he wanted to find his buddy Lupo, he had come inadvertently to the most likely part of the colony. But there was no one there. Besides the perpetual storm outside the bay door, there were no sounds, no signs of activity at all.

  When he turned his gaze down to the floor, Jaeger’s worries became fears. He saw shiny pools of dark red surrounded by dark spatterings.

  “Something bad happened here, Enzo,” Bates whispered.

  As his eyes swept the floor of the large chamber—as much of it as he could see, anyway—Jaeger saw more puddles and spatters, as well as streaks of red here and there over the floor. Blood had been shed, bodies had been removed. Things looked bleak.

  “Yeah,” Jaeger finally replied. “Something bad.” He reached his right hand up, unsnapped the holster that stuck up over his shoulder, and removed the 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun he kept strapped to his back. He opened the collapsible shoulder stock. His left hand checked to make sure that his Glock 9mm was still at his hip, ready to be drawn.

  They took a few more steps into the building, with Bates following Jaeger’s lead. A whirring noise made Jaeger halt and turn his head toward the sound: up and to the right. The sound came again from the left.

  Surveillance cameras mounted around the facility were turning toward them, watching them.

  A stern female voice crackled over speakers Jaeger cou
ld not locate: “Identify yourself.”

  Jaeger turned to Bates and gave him a wink, a signal for him to remain silent until otherwise notified.

  “Uh, my friend and I have found ourselves stranded on this moon and we were looking for shelter. The conditions are not hospitable.” He smiled up at the cameras.

  “Identify yourself.”

  “Uh, well, we were on our way to—”

  A confusion of voices burst from the speakers, then a male voice said, “Enzo? Enzo fucking Jaeger?”

  Jaeger grinned. “Lupo? Is that you?”

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  He smiled and shrugged. “It’s a small galaxy. This is my friend Jack.”

  “No, seriously, what are you doing here?”

  “Uh, well, that’s quite a story.”

  “I’m sure it is.”

  Jaeger nodded down at the floor. “Looks like you’ve had some problems here.”

  “Yeah. Careful, Enzo, you may be in danger at the moment. Look around. Look real good, and make sure you’re alone in there.”

  When Jaeger looked around a second time, he noticed how many dark spaces there were between tractors and loaders, in corners, spaces in which he could see nothing but impenetrable shadows. His eyes narrowed as he looked deeper into that darkness.

  Was that… movement?

  * * *

  Mad had seen the dull glow of Hadley’s Hope oozing above the twisted rock formations in what looked like the near distance as soon as she and Jex had exited the Viper. The walk there, on the other hand, was hampered by the worst winds she had ever encountered and a steady downpour of rain, and it seemed to take much longer than she expected.

  “It doesn’t look like the kind of place that has an exciting night life,” Jex said after they rounded the end of the storm wall and stopped to survey what they could see of the complex. “By the way, Jaeger and Bates beat us here. If you remember, I told you we’d have to be fast if we wanted to—”

  “Fuck off, Jex.” Mad frowned as she looked at the colony in front of her. “This place looks dead.” She and Jex had visited a shake-and-bake colony a few years ago on the trail of a fugitive and it had been a bustling place throughout their visit. Loud machinery and heavy equipment were in operation around the clock and there was endless movement all through the colony as tractors arrived from and others departed to mines and mining or wildcatting expeditions or other destinations.

  All the lights that illuminated Hadley’s Hope seemed to draw attention to its stillness. There was no activity anywhere she looked.

  “It looks like a ghost town,” she said. “Like it’s been abandoned.”

  “Not according to my readings,” Jex said. “They appear to have holed up inside. And they’ve shut this place down to do it. That’s not very Weyland-Yutani of them. Unless they’re trying to avoid some kind of threat. Maybe from outside.”

  “Then maybe we should try to get inside.” Mad started walking briskly again and Jex kept up.

  A few minutes later, Jex said, “There seems to be a bay door lodged open with a Daihotai tractor up ahead.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. But we’ll take it as an invitation to come inside.”

  * * *

  Jaeger realized he was quickly starting to feel paranoid and resisted it by taking his eyes from the dark corners around him and looking again at the surveillance camera directly in front of and above him.

  “Who’s in here with us, Lupo?”

  “We’re, um, not entirely sure yet. And it’s not so much a who as a what.”

  “OK. You gonna explain any of that fucking jabber or am I supposed to take guesses at whatever the hell you’re talking about?”

  “You’ve come at a bad time, Enzo. You and your friend need to turn around and get out of here while you can. Go back to your ship and get the hell out of here.”

  “We don’t have enough fuel to get anywhere.”

  “Then go take shelter in your ship. I’m serious, Enzo. You need to leave the building now. You’re not safe here and we can’t let you in. For all I know… you may be safer out there.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Lupo?”

  “Identify yourself,” the female voice said again.

  Jaeger frowned, squinted at the camera. “What?”

  “Identify yourself!”

  It suddenly occurred to Jaeger that the woman was not talking to him and he spun around in time to see two faceless figures just inside the bay door raising their guns and aiming at him.

  “Take cover, Jack,” he said. They fired an instant before Jaeger fired his shotgun and half a heartbeat after both of them began to dive behind the nearest tractor, with Bates half a step behind him, as both guns fired. The three shots roared and reverberated in the chamber, bouncing sharply off the walls.

  The shooters ran for cover in different directions, one toward the tractors, the other toward the loaders, and all those dark corners.

  “Who the fuck are they, Enzo?” Bates said, his voice high with panic. “Who could’ve found us? I thought we blew up all the Tartarus’s cruisers. Who’s shooting at us, Enzo?”

  “Be quiet. I don’t know. Lemme think, lemme think.”

  Whoever the shooters were, it was clear that they intended to kill Jaeger and Bates because they had started shooting at them on sight. Their only choice was to keep making nice with Lupo and get inside with him.

  “Hey, Lupo!” Jaeger shouted. “Turns out we’re kinda wanted. We could use some help here.”

  Lupo’s staticky voice said, “I told you, Enzo, we can’t help you, we can’t let you in. I’m afraid you’re on your own, buddy.”

  “Fuck,” Jaeger muttered, turning to look around them. “Where’d those two go?”

  * * *

  Mad huddled behind a row of tractor wheels and listened to the voice over the speakers.

  “Look, all of you, I don’t care what your fucking gripe is with each other, take it someplace else. You’re all in danger here.”

  When the voice did not continue, Mad whispered, “What do you think he’s talking about?”

  “There’s something else in here with us,” Jex replied in her earpiece.

  “Who?”

  Instead of responding, Jex began shooting. There was an explosion of gunfire from the rows of loaders where Jex had hidden. When Mad looked in the direction of the sounds, she saw a large shape moving in the shadows among the loaders. Something significantly larger than Jex.

  “Jex, what’s happening?”

  “We may have to leave empty-handed,” Jex said. “I recommend getting the hell out of here now.”

  He began shooting again.

  Mad hurried across the open space toward Jex.

  * * *

  Jaeger was watching one of the two shooters run away from the tractors in the direction of all the sudden gunfire among the loaders across the way when Bates’s whimpering wormed into his ears.

  “What’s the matter now?” Jaeger whispered, turning toward him. He found Bates facing in the opposite direction and looking up.

  As Jaeger spun around, Bates began screaming. He looked up and saw the creature emerging from the murky shadows between two tractors. The first thing he saw was the mouth, mostly the glistening, dripping fangs.

  Bates continued to scream as he backed away, loud, piercing screams that still, somehow, retained within them that frightened-child whimper.

  Jaeger tried to make sense of the creature as it oozed out of the darkness and rose up, those nightmare fangs slowly parting as the mouth opened, its body black with slender arms, large hands that looked more like claws, long muscular legs, and a tail that curled upward behind it.

  Something happened to Bates’s scream. The whimper vanished and the sound thickened. Jaeger wanted to turn and see what was wrong but he could not take his eyes from the thing slowly closing in on him. He could not move, in fact, and felt as if every inch of his body had turned to icy, rigid steel.r />
  The scream, which had become a guttural growl, stopped. But inside his helmet, he still heard Bates’s breathing, heavy and punctuated with grunts of effort.

  Jaeger heard a sound above him. He wanted to look up because it sounded like it had come from the roof of the tractor on his left, but he could not look away from what he was certain would be his death.

  Somehow, he broke through his paralysis and raised the shotgun.

  The creature rushed to close the distance between it and Jaeger as he curled his finger around the trigger of his shotgun.

  A wet, throaty roar sounded as something seemed to drop on the alien from above, making it shriek as it spun around, thrashing its tail and trying to throw off the intruder.

  It was Bates. As he lowered his gun and took a few steps back, forgotten now by the monster that had been advancing on him only seconds earlier, Jaeger realized that Bates had climbed on top of one of the tractors and dove onto the creature. But the thing that was now riding that black, spidery monster, roaring as it repeatedly pounded the long, cylindrical head of the shrieking thing, was no longer the Bates he knew.

  He had shed his suit because he had become too big for it, and his exposed skin—a rusty red, as if all of his many prominent freckles had blended together and darkened—was rough and creased, like the thick hide of an elephant, and now sprouted bony thorns all over his body. His arms were the same size that his legs used to be and appeared to be longer, ending in enormous hands with a thorn on each knuckle and deadly black claws that had emerged from the tips of his fingers. Jaeger’s big, dumb, lumbering friend had become a hulking, thorny, fast-moving devil from some mythological pit.

  The creature had completely forgotten about Jaeger, who now stood in slack-jawed horror and watched the two monsters fight.

  * * *

  Mad saw Jex lying flat on his back on the floor, a gun in each hand, pushing himself rapidly backward over the floor with his feet as he fired up at the advancing creature, a black, spidery-scorpion nightmare.