Eradication: A Space Opera: Book Four of The Shadow Order
Page 14
The shuttle seemed to agitate Sparks more than ever and she twisted and shook in Bruke’s grip. Seb chewed on his bottom lip as he looked at her. “They won’t let us on the shuttle with her in that state. Can you do anything to subdue her?”
Bruke shook his head.
As the shuttle drew close, the thrust from the engines buffeted Seb’s suit and sent him stumbling back a step. Sparks became even more animated.
“Do something, Bruke.” But Seb could see Bruke already doing everything he could, his teeth clenched as he battled against Sparks’ movement.
The shuttle landed and SA helped Bruke restrain Sparks. She fought against them with more vigour than Seb had seen from her before. She thrashed and twisted, seemingly desperate to get at the people on the shuttle.
The shuttle door opened and a large creature from the Shadow Order stared at them. It had a round blue face twice the size of Seb’s. It had thick and waxy skin. “What’s wrong with her?” it said.
“She’s got a parasite in her.”
“We’re not taking her.”
Tiredness got the better of Seb and he snapped. While pointing a finger at the beast, he said, “Don’t tell me what you’re not going to do, you ugly toad.”
“What did you call me?” The creature’s shoulders lifted and he balled his large fists.
A sigh and Seb let go of his anger. No fear when it came to a potential fight with the creature, but if Seb were in his situation, then he’d probably refuse Sparks entry to the shuttle too. What would Moses do to the creature who brought her back to the Shadow Order’s base in that state? “Sorry,” he said, “that was uncalled for. But we’re not leaving her here. We need to try to help her.”
Before the beast could reply, Bruke pulled on Seb’s sleeve. At first he shrugged it off, returning his attention to the creature, but when Bruke pulled on it again, Seb spun around and said, “What?”
It took for Seb to follow the line where Bruke pointed to see the things coming towards them. A squint to see better through his visor—the time reading ‘2h45m’—and he saw their blood-red eyes. “Shit!”
CHAPTER 50
The two beasts were huge. Easily the size of fully grown elephants, they were shaped like seals. As pink as newborn moles, they ran across the open wasteland. Despite their clumsy gait—their heads bobbing up and down as they ran while their bottoms moved the opposite way like a nodding donkey—they ate away at the distance between them and the shuttle quicker than their forms should have been capable of.
And their eyes. Seb couldn’t look away from them. The blood-red of beings infected with the parasites. The blood-red that stared back at him through Sparks’ visor in her radiation suit despite the yellow tint. The blood-red that lusted after destruction.
Seb raised the stock of his gun to his shoulder. One eye closed, he looked down the barrel of it. His world slowed down as he ripped off several green blasts.
They flew over the red rocky wasteland and sailed harmlessly wide of the monsters. The distance alone made it hard to hit the huge creatures. Their unusual lolling run made it damn near impossible to draw a bead on them.
“Quick,” Seb shouted at Wilson and his family. “Get on the shuttle now.”
They didn’t need to be told twice. As they clambered into the back, the toad-like soldier reached out of the shuttle and helped them on.
SA moved next to Seb. It felt like she understood what had to happen. Calm stillness, it felt like she was telling him she’d follow him wherever he needed to go.
Because Sparks didn’t need her weapons at that moment, SA had taken both of her blasters. As quick as an automatic rifle, she sent shots across the wasteland at the creatures. She missed with every one. Much closer than Seb had managed, but still nowhere near taking them down. They’d have to let them get closer. But how close before they were committing suicide?
Maybe SA had given Seb her silent support like he’d thought, but maybe he’d misinterpreted her. Either way, he needed his friends more now than ever. “Follow me,” he called out as he turned away from the shuttle and ran back towards the hangar.
“What are you doing?” Bruke shouted after him, frozen to the spot as he looked between Seb and their ride out of there.
“No time to explain,” Seb shouted back. “But you need to come. And bring Sparks. They won’t let her on the shuttle and I think I know how to save her.”
SA and Bruke ran after Seb. Bruke had thrown Sparks over his shoulder and moved as if she weighed nothing.
The sound of the shuttle’s engines rumbled behind them, and just before Seb got to the hangar, he heard the ship take off again.
The hangar doors were wide open, so Seb ran through them straight to the keycard reader. He swiped his card through the slot to close them.
Seb watched both SA and Bruke run through the closing doors into the hangar. Bruke put Sparks down and restrained her again.
As the doors closed, Seb watched the creatures descend on them. Strange things, they made a noise somewhere between a trumpet and a roar as they got closer. But they wouldn’t make it through the doors before they closed. They were quick, but not that quick.
The doors pinched out the last strip of daylight as Seb heard the whir of the shuttle’s guns outside. He listened as a meteor shower of blasts crashed against the rocky ground. He felt the vibration of them through the soles of his feet.
The trumpeting roar of the creatures fell silent.
When the light above the hangar doors turned green, Seb pressed the button on the side of his head and watched the world return to its normal hue. He listened as Bruke and SA breathed heavily from the run. That and Sparks’ snarling fury. He looked at Bruke and SA and spoke through his laboured breaths. “I think they got them.”
SA moved over to one of the small windows in the hangar doors before she looked back at Seb and nodded. Bruke continued to battle with Sparks.
Seb jumped when the radio hissed from his top pocket. He pulled it free and pressed the talk button on the side. “Did you get them?”
“Yes,” the creature who wouldn’t let Sparks on the shuttle said. “Both of them are down. But never mind that. What are you doing?”
“We couldn’t leave,” Seb said. “There are more infected creatures. More parasites that need to be taken down. That is our mission, after all.”
Wilson’s voice came through the receiver at him. “Are you thinking the creature in the mines wasn’t the main queen?” The rumble of the shuttle in flight roared as a background noise behind the scientist.
“There are obviously more beasts on Carstic than you originally thought,” Seb said. “From the look of it, they’ve also been infected by the parasites. We have to kill all of the grubs.”
“And maybe help Sparks in the process?”
“Hopefully.”
Bruke and SA watched Seb the entire time.
“And maybe it’ll explain why the grubs came from out of the wastelands,” Seb added.
“Maybe,” Wilson said, although he didn’t sound convinced.
“Maybe the grubs weren’t planted here by someone looking to get at the Camorons’ wealth in some way.”
Wilson didn’t reply.
Seb leaned against the wall with the card reader on it. In a strange way, it felt good to see the huge pink beasts. It meant there might be a queen of the hive mind they were yet to take down. It also meant the grubs weren’t put on the planet. They’d probably lived there the entire time. It meant the Camorons weren’t being used for their wealth. Because, at the end of the day, if anyone was using the Camorons to get rich, it would most likely be Moses and, by extension, them.
CHAPTER 51
The radio burst back to life, startling Seb and making him jump away from the wall. Wilson’s voice came through. “There’s a lush area a few miles from the hangar. It’s like a rainforest. Green, damp, vibrant …”
Seb waited for him to say more, watching Bruke and SA as they too listened in.
“And what’s there?”
“We don’t know.”
“But you know it’s there?”
“We’ve been there, but we only had ninety-minute radiation suits, so we couldn’t stay long.”
“Ninety minutes wasn’t enough time?”
“No, we could only go in so far with that. The place is huge,” Wilson said.
“How do you know it’s big?”
“We’ve seen it from satellite images, but we’ve never seen any life in there, which is why we assumed it didn’t have any. Our satellites can take a photo of a flea’s arse anywhere on this planet.”
“So where did those two beasts come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, so that’s where we’ll go. How good is the tank in here? Will it get us to the rainforest?”
“It’s amazing,” Wilson said. “It’ll get you there in no time and keep the radiation off you. As long as it’s all sealed up, you’ll be fine to travel in it for as long as you need to. You can open the doors and close them again and it’ll clear the radiation in seconds.”
“And you still didn’t have enough time to explore the forest when you travelled there in the tank?”
“Like I said, the forest is huge.”
Both SA and Bruke continued to watch Seb. Neither showed any signs of objecting to the plan yet. “Okay, thank you for all your help.”
“Thank you for saving my family.”
Seb didn’t reply.
“Oh, and Seb?”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t say anything before.”
“About what?”
“About you.”
A look at the other two and Seb said, “What about me?”
“You’re human.”
“Yep.”
“But you’re not. I can see that in you. There’s something else. Something much greater than human.”
“What are you talking about?”
The radio hissed at Seb and the line went dead. “Wilson?”
Nothing.
“Wilson?”
Just the hiss of the radio.
“They must have a problem with their radio,” Bruke said, grimacing as he continued to fight against Sparks.
“You reckon?”
A frown and Bruke pulled his head back. “There’s no need to be facetious.”
“Sorry,” Seb said. “The radio cut off at a frustrating time. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
“We’ll see Wilson again,” Bruke said.
“Yeah.” Seb nodded. “I’ll talk to him then. For now, we need to get to the lush part of the planet he was talking about. It looks like we have more grubs to take down.”
Seb turned the dial on Sparks’ radio to change the channel. “I need to call Moses and tell him what’s happening.”
CHAPTER 52
A knot of anxiety sat in Seb’s guts. He hated talking to Moses, especially when he had to defer to him. The large shark-like creature claimed to always be available on channel six, so he switched it to channel six and pressed the button on the side of the radio. “Moses, it’s Seb.”
“Seb, I was hoping you’d call. What’s happening down there?”
He’d obviously spoken to the shuttle, but Seb humoured him anyway. “We’ve cleared the mining complex out.”
“Good work.”
“But as we were leaving, more creatures appeared.”
“And?”
“Infected creatures.”
“So it’s not just contained to the mines?”
“No, there are more parasites on Carstic.”
“That’s why you didn’t get on the shuttle?” Before Seb could reply, Moses explained, “The crew on the shuttle were telling me everything, but we’ve lost contact with them.”
“Yeah, us too.”
“Do you think you can save Sparks?”
The small Thrystian twisted and shook against Bruke’s grip as she continued to try to work her way free. A heavy sigh and Seb said, “I hope so.” To look at her in her current state tore at his heart.
“Just don’t bring her back here if she’s infected with one of those things.”
“I’m not letting her die, Moses.”
“She isn’t coming to Aloo with a parasite in her.”
Seb replied through gritted teeth, “I’m not letting her die.”
A moment’s pause, and Moses said, “Let’s cross that bridge if we have to.”
They needed to move forward. It wouldn’t do them any good to argue. “The dad of the family we rescued,” Seb said, “has a theory that the parasites have a queen. That if we kill the queen, all the others will die.”
“And you trust him?”
“I’m not sure, but we’ve got to try, right? I mean, we have to take the parasites down anyway.”
Another moment of radio static where Moses didn’t reply.
“He has another theory too.”
“Oh?”
“He thinks the grubs were put on the planet to clear the mine out. That someone wanted the complex clear so they could get to the ruthane. But I think that’s been disproven now we’ve seen that other creatures are zombies too. That the parasites were probably outside all along. But I wonder if there’s any weight to it?”
“It seems a bit far-fetched. I know ruthane’s expensive, but he sounds like a conspiracy theory nut.”
“I suppose nearly dying of thirst in a small cave would do that to you. I hope he’s right about the queen though.”
“Me too.” Moses sounded like he wanted to repeat to Seb that he couldn’t bring Sparks back, but he didn’t. Instead, he pulled in a long breath and said, “Good luck, and see you when you get back.”
Just talking to Moses made Seb’s blood boil. He’d never been good with authority, especially authority he had zero respect for. A million snarky comments flashed through his mind, but before he could say a single one of them, a loud explosion burst through the air outside. The shock of it rumbled through the ground.
Seb looked at SA, who’d remained by the window in the hangar doors. She looked back at him with wide eyes and an open mouth.
Because she couldn’t tell him any more than that, Seb ran over to the window and looked out at the large cloud of grey smoke. “The shuttle?”
When SA nodded, Seb let out a long sigh. He looked back at the vast cloud of smoke and shook his head. “Damn.”
CHAPTER 53
Weakened by what he saw outside, Seb leaned against the large metal doors for support. A jumble of words sat inside his head, but he couldn’t grasp the form of them.
After several deep breaths, Seb had pulled himself together enough to call Moses back on the radio. Before Moses had a chance to speak, he said, “What just happened?”
Clearly irked by Seb’s directness, Moses paused for a few seconds and breathed heavily into the microphone. He then replied in a low tone as if holding back his fury. “What are you talking about?”
“The shuttle!”
“What about the shuttle?”
Such a tight grip on the radio, Seb heard the plastic casing crack a little. He eased off. His new hands were much more capable of crushing things than his old ones. He had to remember that. “The shuttle with Wilson and his family just blew up as it was flying away. What happened?”
A pause before Moses said, “I’m … I’m not sure.” After another pause, he came back on the radio. “I can’t get through to anyone to find out.”
“I’m not surprised,” Seb said, “considering they were all just cremated out there.”
Another monotone reply came back at him. “You’ll have to leave it with me.”
What could Seb say to that? Far from satisfactory, but if Moses didn’t know anything, he couldn’t tell him anything. No point in replying, Seb let go of the talk button and put the radio back in hi
s pocket.
When Seb finally looked up, he met the penetrative stare of SA and shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.
Even though Bruke stood a few metres away from them, still holding onto Sparks and wrestling to keep her under control, he stood close enough to hear the conversation with Moses. Hard not to in the near silent hangar. “Let’s just hope the shuttle wasn’t powered by ruthane, and if it was, that the explosion had nothing to do with the gas.” He looked at the tank. “That thing’s probably loaded with the stuff.” After he’d looked around the hangar, he added, “And I don’t think anything else will get us to the rainforest.”
A look at the large black tank and Seb sighed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Seb looked at Sparks again, the now familiar twist of pain spasming through her. “I’m going to take it anyway. I want to do everything I can to save Sparks. I don’t expect either of you to come with me. It’s a choice you need to make.”
Every time Bruke shrugged, it highlighted just how broad his shoulders were. “I’ll go wherever you do, Seb,” he said.
When Seb looked at SA, he saw no sign of hesitation when she nodded at him.
“Okay,” Seb said, “I’ll drive. SA, can you get on the turret?”
SA nodded again.
One last look at Sparks, her fitting as vehement as ever, and Seb said, “Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER 54
The second they left the hangar, they found the remains of the two beasts that had chased them. As Seb manoeuvred the tank around their huge pink corpses, he looked down to see they were riddled with holes from where the shuttle had torn into them. Blue blood pooled around them, and a grub—easily the size of the queen they’d found in the mines—lay dead by each corpse. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait for the fat things to crawl out so they could kill them. It wouldn’t be that plain sailing for the rest of their journey.