Other residents, being oblivious to the light brought by the interlopers, moved cautiously away from the vibrations made by the armored giants' footsteps, choosing self preservation over a possible meal.
* * * * *
Several kilometers deep into the cave they came upon a gentle upward slope. Trickling down the incline was a stream, and spreading outward from its banks was what appeared to be a carpet of vivid green. The improbable green blanket extended to the upward curve at the cave walls.
“Now that is strange,” Mizuki commented. She was in constant communication with the science staff on board the Peggy Sue. “Dr. Krenshaw says that the ground cover looks like some form of moss or liverwort. He also says that they shouldn't be growing this deep in the cave, even such shade loving plants need sunlight.”
“Everyone turn out yer lights. Let's see if there is any natural illumination down here.”
One by one, the explorers shut off their suit lights, plunging the cave into darkness. Then, slowly, as their eyes adjusted, a ghostly scene faded in. The ceiling and walls of the cave glowed dimly, casting a pale light on the mossy surface. Attracted by the ceiling's glow, the butterflies flew on ahead of the ground bound humans.
Billy Ray turned his suit lights back on. “Well I guess that solved that mystery.”
“Too bad,” Mizuki said. “Will was very excited, thinking we had found plants that can grow in the dark.”
The four walked along the meandering stream. The water soaked ground cover squished with each step.
“I'm all for making scientific discoveries, but there's bloody little profit in some of the things that excite our science boffins—no slight intended, Mizuki.”
Mizuki was about to reply when a white tube, as big around as a fire hose and more than three meters in length, erupted from the ground next to her feet and coiled around her torso. She glanced back at her companions to see a forest of writhing white stalks sprouting around the Earthlings. Groping blindly for the startled explorers the giant worms seemed intent on dragging them down.
Chapter 37
The Mossy Chamber
“Oh bollocks!” Beth exclaimed as three white, segmented worms coiled around her legs and body. Drawing her side arm—a flechette pistol that fired the same 5mm projectiles as the Marines' small arms—she fired a couple of rounds into one of the worms accosting her. The pallid annelid jerked at the impacts but did not go down, the flechettes passing cleanly through its body.
Billy Ray also drew his pistol, a 10mm that fired explosive rounds. He too attempted to shoot their wriggling attackers, but one of the worms seized his forearm with its surprisingly strong mouth, throwing off his aim. The shot struck a worm near Bobby and exploded, bisecting its target by vaporizing a meter long section of the worm's body.
“Hey, easy Tex!” Bobby shouted.
“Sorry, pardner. These things are stronger than you'd think.”
“I don't think side arms are going to be very effective against these things, dear.”
“Ya think, honey bunch?”
“Kiai!” Mizuki yelled, reaching over her shoulder and drawing her new katana. With a single handed stroke she sliced two of the white worms in half. A back stroke claimed another, freeing her leg.
That left a single worm clinging to her waist. Inserting the sword along side her left hip, cutting edge out, she made a slicing cut that severed her last attacker. While she was dealing with her attackers, the aoi chō returned. Sparks flew as they swarmed the living forest that has so unexpectedly sprouted in their absence.
Looking to her left Mizuki saw Bobby had also drawn his sword and was hacking away at the swaying forest of worms with energetic abandon. As Bobby sent hunks of white worm flying in all directions, Beth and Billy Ray continued grappling with their own assailants. Billy Ray had stopped trying to shoot the worms and had drawn his survival knife. With it he was attempting to saw through the tough white flesh wrapped around his body. The worms' flexible bodies were a form of muscular hydrostat and, though lacking bones or cartilage, were surprisingly strong.
Beth, becoming frustrated, fired several more flechettes at her attackers. One of them pinged off her husband's armor.
“Sweetheart, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd stop shooting in my direction.”
“Sorry, dear, any damage?”
“Naw, no blood no foul.” Light combat armor was invulnerable to flechette fire except at extreme muzzle velocities, velocities that Beth's pistol was incapable of generating.
Mizuki moved toward her friend. “Hold still Beth, I will cut the worms off of you.”
“Thank you, love, the buggers are proving quite recalcitrant.”
Mizuki's blade was a blur as she danced around the taller First Officer. Sections of worm fell from Beth's dark armor, squirming where they lay on the mossy ground.
“Hold still, Billy Ray,” Bobby shouted, hacking through several of the worms still wrapped around the Captain.
“Be careful with that thing, pardner. If I recall, you used to have trouble shaving yer self without drawing blood.”
“Funny for a guy covered in worms.” With a sideways swipe that missed Billy Ray's armored belly by a scant centimeters, the last worm enveloping him split in two and fell to the ground.
The worms had had enough. Those still whole retreated back into their lairs, some pulling pieces of their fallen comrades after them. All around the humans pieces of white annelid littered the mossy ground, some still twitching weakly.
“Let's get the hell outta here,” Billy Ray suggested, pointing upslope. “Before something else comes looking for a free lunch.”
The explorers bounded up the moss covered incline until they stood once more on bare rock. Looking back down the sloping tunnel Billy Ray shook his head.
“Well that was a new experience—attacked by giant killer earthworms.”
“Now you know why I love this planet.”
“Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Mizuki-chan.”
“I can't wait to see what comes next,” Beth added.
“I tell you what, honey bunch. Next time we decide to go walkabout on a strange planet I think we should carry swords like Mizuki and Bobby.”
“No argument there, dear.”
“Oh good! More students for my kendo class.” Mizuki smiled brightly.
A call came over their radios.
“Captain, Pinnace, are you alright? Do you need assistance?”
“Pinnace, Captain. We're all OK. Maintain your position. We are pushing on. Captain out.” The trek continued, if a bit more cautiously, with the butterflies providing air cover.
Pinnace
“You heard 'em. They are doing fine.” said Jacobs. Half way through the dust-up with the cave worms, Hitch was down the airstair and ready to go after the four officers.
“It didn't sound so fine a minute ago, I thought it was gonna turn into a monkey and a football,” Hitch insisted. “You saw the video feed, they were attacked by giant, mutant earthworms!”
“You don't know that they're mutants.”
“You know what I mean. The furball was bad enough that the Captain was using his k-bar and the XO actually shot him trying to get those worms off.”
“They're in armor, bonehead. They were never in any danger and you know it. And did you see how Dr. Ogawa and Cmdr. Danner hacked up those worm things with their swords?”
“Yeah, that was cool. We gotta get ourselves some swords, man.”
“Let's talk to the armorers when we get back to the ship. In the mean time we need to be ready to go after the officers riki-tic if they get into real trouble.”
“You're right about that, or the Chief will have our guts for garters.”
The Cavern
Moving beyond the hall of the white worms, the explores encountered more difficult terrain. At times they were forced to crawl on their hands and knees through tight passages, to clamber up rock falls, and descend near vertical slopes. After an hour of such torture the
y emerged in another sizable chamber.
“To think that there are people who do this for fun,” Beth commented, gratefully standing upright.
“People do a lot of stupid things, honey bunch. I've always thought that havin' to seek out danger for fun means you're playing it way too safe in yer daily life.”
“What is wrong with living a safe life, Billy Ray?”
“'Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.'” Billy Ray recited.
“Teddy Roosevelt,” Bobby stated.
“I understand why he knows all these passages, but how do you know them as well, Bobby?”
“You forget that I've known him since high school, sweetheart. He's been throwing quotes at me for decades.”
“I believe that the Dark Lords changed things on the challenge of life front, dear. Things have become a bit too challenging for most.”
“JFK said something about that: 'Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.'”
While they were conversing, the four were carefully picking their way across the chamber. The rock here was dark and wet, and long root like strands hung down from the ceiling fifteen meters overhead.
“Have you always wanted to be a philosopher king?” Mizuki asked.
“Naw,” he smiled, “just a philosopher captain—king's gotta stay put and rule his kingdom, a captain gets to command his ship and his ship can take him anywhere.”
“These things look like plant roots,” Bobby mused, reaching out to touch one of the tendrils in question. “I've heard of roots growing down into caves from surface plants. Could we be that close to the surface?”
“I don't know Bobby. We have been traveling up hill most of the time so we might be close to the surface.”
There was a sound, like branches whipping through air. A number of the deceptively fragile looking roots wrapped themselves around Bobby. He vanished, yanked toward the ceiling of the chamber.
“Bobby!” Mizuki reacted instantly, drawing her sword and hacking off all of the hanging tendrils within her reach. Bobby was already half way to the ceiling.
“I can't move,” he yelled, straining against the misleadingly slender threads that wrapped his arms and chest. “Somebody get me down!”
Looking up and directing their suit lights on the ceiling, the others could see that the roof of the cavern was covered with puckered mounds. The hanging tendrils sprouted from the bases of the mounds. The appendages that had kidnapped Bobby belonged to a large mound that opened to reveal a toothed, funnel-like maw.
Billy Ray drew his sidearm and fired three times in quick succession. Brilliant orange flashes erupted from where the gaping mouth awaited Bobby's arrival. Bits of creature and shards of stone flew. Bobby fell.
“Oh shiiitttttt...” he yelled. His outcry was cut short when his still bound body struck the floor of the chamber. Mizuki immediately moved to sever his bonds.
Beth had also drawn her pistol and was firing flechette bursts into all of the creatures she could identify, green tracers scribing lines of light from her weapon to the ceiling. Each creature she shot quickly pulled up its hanging tendrils and folded in on itself.
“Bobby, are you OK?” Mizuki asked as her butterflies formed a swirling barrier above them—they were evidently too small to trigger the ceiling creatures' snares, passing through the dangling roots without incident.
“That was just what I needed,” Bobby said slowly, awaiting the verdict of his suit's medical scanners. The impact reactive layer of his armor had stiffened when he hit the ground but it didn't lessen the blow, just redistribute the force. Green lights lit on his helmet display.
“You OK, pardner? We need to get out of here ASAP.”
“Yeah, yeah, no permanent damage. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt though.”
“Can you stand up?” Mizuki reached down to help him. Slowly he got to his feet and they continued on. As they traversed the chamber, tendrils from other ceiling creatures retracted before them.
“Looks like they have a way of communicating,” Beth observed. She still held her pistol in her hand as did her husband.
Billy Ray grimaced and holstered his weapon. “Let's hope they have a way of remembering, I don't want to go through this on the way back out.”
* * * * *
A half hour later, Bobby was hardly limping and good spirits had returned. Then they came to the chasm.
“What do you make of that?” asked Billy Ray, peering over the edge.
“That is your basic issue bottomless pit,” answered Beth.
Mizuki, being a scientist, measured the width of the yawning crack in the earth before them. “It is 9.3 meters across according to my laser rangefinder.”
“That, if I recall, is longer than the Olympic long jump record,” Bobby observed.
“Yes, but that was set under normal Earth gravity. The gravity here is only two thirds of that. That should translate into jump height 50% higher and a hang time approximately 23% longer.”
“Yeah, but we ain't Olympic athletes. If we could manage seven meters on Earth we'd still come up short.”
“You are forgetting that we are all enhanced. Have you tried doing a long jump since the T'aafhal nanites have been in your system?”
“No, Dr. Ogawa, I have not and I'm not real keen on testing your calculations with a leap of faith, as it were.”
“Don't forget that the suits also multiply our body strength,” Bobby added.
“You want to go first, Hopalong?”
Mizuki paused while listening to somebody on the ship. “The people in the CIC did a computer search and report that elite jumpers usually leave the ground at an angle of twenty degrees or less. Therefore, it is more beneficial for a jumper to concentrate on the initial speed component of the jump.”
“You're saying we should trust our lives to a Google search?” Beth sounded more than a bit skeptical.
“No, you should trust basic physics.” Mizuki began twitching her fingers rapidly—she was entering things using her suit's virtual keyboard mode. Finishing her calculations she looked up from the in helmet display and addressed her colleagues. “By my calculations, running at ten meters per second, with a thirty degree take off angle, you would get a hang time of 1.7 seconds and could theoretically travel 14.73 meters before striking the ground.”
“That's like 22-23 miles per hour,” Billy Ray converted in his head. “Yeah, I think that's doable, what do y'all think?”
“After you, Captain.” Bobby smiled and made a sweeping gesture toward the chasm with one arm.
“After all, people have been jumping off cliffs since the dawn of time. How hard can it be?”
“Of course dear, but let me attach a safety line, just in case.”
After letting Beth clip a thin safety line to the back of his suit, Billy Ray backed up twenty meters from the edge of the precipice and yelled. “Stand clear!”
Billy Ray ran toward the yawning crevasse, long legs pumping, accelerating for all he was worth. Just before the edge he landed on his right leg and leaped. Sailing well above the pit, legs pumping to keep an upright attitude, the tall Texan cleared the hurdle with several meters to spare.
Taking a few steps to slow down, Billy Ray turned to his friends and, with a wave of his arm, yelled, “Y'all come!”
One at a time the remaining explorers leaped the chasm. Last across was Bobby, who stumbled a bit on landing but handily cleared the obstacle. “I haven't had this much fun since summer camp,” he muttered.
Billy Ray clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Come on, pardner, admit it—that was fun.”
“I hated summer camp.”
Up ahead, Beth cleared her throat.
“Uh, boys? I think you should look at the far wall up ahead...”
The Metal Wall
In response
to Beth's call, the two men hurried to catch up with the women. A hundred meters ahead they spotted what she was talking about—a smooth metal wall embedded in the native rock. Nearing the wall, holographic symbols could be seen embedded in the metallic surface, shifting with the observer's point of view.
“Well, that sure looks like something the T'aafhal would make. You got any readings, Mizuki?”
“Practically nothing above background, its power supply must be either inactive or well shielded.”
“There appears to be no seam at all between the metal and the surrounding rock, they abut each other perfectly,” Beth observed.
Crouching down in front of the metal barrier, Bobby examined the material intently. “The metal certainly looks like the hull metal on the M'tak Ka'fek, some kind of metallic-ceramic composite. I don't see any hatch markings, but I would wager that this stuff is selectively permeable, allowing access without having to cut holes in it.”
“That would be in keeping with T'aafhal design esthetics,” Billy Ray agreed. “Peggy Sue, are you getting this?”
“Yes, Captain. We are recording everything from your suits and the recon drone.” The drone was hovering above and behind the party of humans, providing a wide shot of the activity in front of the metal barrier.
“I'm getting no readings from behind the barrier, it must be electromagnetically shielded,” Mizuki said almost absentmindedly, twiddling on a small device she had extracted from her backpack. “I don't think we can learn anymore from the outside.”
“Yer sayin' we should try to go inside?”
“Yes.”
“We could try to cut a hole with a utility laser,” Beth suggested.
“Why don't we just do what we did when we discovered the M'tak Ka'fek?” Bobby said, standing up in front of the metal barrier.
“And that would be?”
“Just try to walk through the wall.”
“That sounds like a very bold move, Bobby.” Mizuki stared at him, wide eyed. Whenever she gave him that look, Bobby still couldn't tell if she was impressed with his bravery or astonished by his foolishness.
The Queen's Daemon (T'aafhal Legacy Book 2) Page 29
