by M. R. Forbes
Find humans. Kill humans.
It was the instruction that had given Caleb control. The instruction the trife knew best. He didn’t need to order them to follow it so much as plant the seed in their minds that there were humans nearby. He had fed them a sense of a human settlement. A taste. A smell. The small nest had latched onto that idea and genetics had done the rest, sending them scrambling out from the hollowed pile of rubble where they were hiding and causing them to race across the landscape in Caleb’s general direction.
A handful of trife didn’t present much aid against the xaxkluth, but Caleb hadn’t tricked the creatures into coming because he expected them to fight. He had already witnessed thousands of them dying to the much larger and more powerful aliens, easily outmatched even when they outnumbered their opponents a thousand to one.
The twenty or so trife he had captured didn’t have a chance at surviving what lay both ahead and behind them. He hadn’t summoned them to fight. He had brought them here because of what they could attract. They weren’t the perfect weapon, but they were the perfect bait. Like a worm dangling from a hook, Caleb had cast them out into the open and reeled them in with the hopes of capturing a much bigger prize.
I give you credit for your creativity. But this plan is doomed to fail.
Caleb ignored Ishek’s negativity, maintaining his focus on the lead trife. The ground shuddered again as the goliath behind the demons took another step. The vibrations sent signals of warning and panic through its brain and telling it that if it didn’t run faster, it would wind up in one of the large hands reaching for it. It knew it was little more than a tiny morsel for a very hungry giant.
Caleb couldn’t turn the trife’s head to look back, but he could sense the goliath behind the demon. He could smell its horrible scent and hear it grumbling. He could feel the air shifting as it took large steps in pursuit, and the ground moving when it landed. He was aware every time one of the other trife didn’t move fast enough and was caught up by a goliath, lifted to its horrible grinding maw and devoured without hesitation.
The buildings of Sanisco rose on either side of the diminishing group of trife. The steel, glass and concrete structures were battered, broken and coated in layers of dark, solidified slime left during the xaxkluth’s entry to the city. The three xaxkluth were approaching on a direct collision course with the trife, tentacles undulating and writhing ahead of them. Caleb knew instinctively the trife weren’t the xaxkluth’s target, but the trife didn’t seem to understand that. The one he was observing hissed when it identified the enemy threat, coming to a sudden stop that nearly cost it its life.
It was lucky because the goliath chasing it noticed the xaxkluth at the same moment the trife stopped moving. Instead of reaching for the trife it straightened up, grumbling so loudly the sound reverberated through the streets in a terrifying echo. The xaxkluth replied with a groan of its own, tentacles pulling back and helping propel the Relyeh forward to attack.
The trife got trapped between the two sides. It barely made the leap over one of the tentacles as the xaxkluth approached. Another nearly crushed it as it attempted its escape. For a moment, Caleb thought the creature might make it. Then another limb grabbed and wrapped around it, lifting it high into the air.
The xaxkluth, still clutching the terrified trife, reached the goliath, stretching its empty tentacles to grapple with a massive leg. The goliath reached for the xaxkluth, but it redirected its tentacles to catch the hand. Its limbs caught the goliath’s fingers, tensing at full extension and fighting to keep the hand away. The effort kept the goliath’s arm in place for a second before the tentacles gave out. The goliath wrapped its fingers around the mass and lifted it. Caleb’s trife remained trapped as the xaxkluth struggled to break free, groaning and flailing in the goliath’s’ overpowering grip.
Caleb thought the goliath would eat the xaxkluth, but it brought its hand back down instead, crushing it against the street, the force of the impact collapsing the already damaged side of a building.
The tentacle went limp, setting the trife free. It rolled away from the dead xaxkluth and tried to run, making it three steps before a second goliath scooped it up and threw it toward its mouth.
Caleb severed the connection before the trife was eaten, his eyes snapping open and glancing quickly around the interior of the tank.
“Colonel?” Hicks said, noticing Caleb’s panic.
“I’m fine,” Caleb replied. “The targets are engaged. Sheriff Duke, the path is clear.”
“Pozz,” Sheriff Duke replied, his voice growing more distant as he spoke into his comm badge. “All convoys, follow the mark. Stay on target. Do not deviate. The Centurions will handle any stragglers.”
There was no response from the convoy leads, including Hicks. The tank vibrated a little more violently as its velocity increased and it came around the corner. Caleb looked at the displays in front of the cockpit, relying entirely on cameras to project the world outside. They had entered the corridor leading out of the city. The same passage they had been in earlier. The large xaxkluth Caleb had killed was still occupying the left side of the street, while more bodies—both human and alien—were cast across the road.
“Second time’s a charm,” Hicks said, noticing Caleb looking at the displays. “We’ll make it out this time.”
No, we won’t.
“We will...” Caleb said, shifting his eyes to check the other views. The ground rumbled, a noise like an explosion sounding to their left. A xaxkluth body flew across the street, crashing into the side of a building and bringing the remains of the structure down on it. A goliath stepped toward them, towering over the convoy with its mouth hanging open. “...as long as that thing leaves us alone.”
The tank had the lead position in the convoy, guiding the line of nearly two dozen vehicles toward the monstrous humanoid. Stopping to wait wasn’t an option, not with the xaxkluth nearby.
It may need a distraction.
Caleb closed his eyes again, entering the Collective in search of a nearby trife. He could sense the nodes on the Relyeh network as if the universe were an endless heat map. The closest aliens were like a spot of sunlight against his skin. Their position within the Relyeh hierarchy was in part determined by their strength within the Collective. Caleb was hesitant to reach too far out for fear of drawing Vyte’s attention or accidentally stumbling on the Axon’s Quantum Network, but past experience had taught him that Shub-Nigu was the brightest star in the Collective universe. The ancient Relyeh’s heat was still palpable from thousands of light years away.
He hadn’t told Sheriff Duke and the others about Vyte’s direct line to the center of the Relyeh Collective. He wasn’t sure they would understand, and even if they did, he wasn’t sure what it would mean to the current situation. Vyte had already gleaned the most important information from the Collective. The location of Proxima. Now he was after Doctor Valentine and the other Relyeh Ancients. As far as Caleb knew, all of humankind’s secrets had already been revealed.
There were no trife left now anywhere within Sanisco. There had been only a handful before, and the goliaths and xaxkluth had quickly taken the rest out. Caleb could feel the xaxkluth though. Their beacons were larger and hotter, threatening to burn him if he got too close.
He opened his eyes to Hicks’ panicked face.
“Sheriff, what do we do?” he asked.
Caleb looked at the display. The goliath was directly in front of them, looking down at the approaching convoy.
“Parabellum is incoming,” Stacker said.
Caleb tried to find the dropship on the displays. He couldn’t see it, but he saw its plasma cannons begin peppering the goliath, the bursts of gas burning deep into its flesh. It howled and turned as the Parabellum flashed past, taking a swipe at the aircraft. It missed badly, but the distraction allowed Hicks to guide the tank around its left leg. A glance at the vehicle’s sensors showed the convoy duplicating the move.
There was virtually no chan
ce they would all make it past before the goliath recovered.
The plan to bring the goliaths in to distract the xaxkuth had worked too well. The giants were overwhelming the enemy faster than Caleb would have guessed, leaving them free to attack the convoy before the convoy made it clear. Without any trife left for them to devour, there was only one way Caleb could think of to distract the goliaths.
“I need to overpower a xaxkluth,” he said.
“What?” Hicks replied.
Caleb, we aren’t strong enough.
“We have to be.”
Caleb shut his eyes a third time, using Ishek to return to the Collective. Sergeant Walt’s Relyeh parasite had managed to freeze the xaxkluth before, and while it probably had help from Vyte, it still needed to bear the brunt of the effort. If it could do it, then he and Ishek should be able to do it too. Their shared bond made both of them stronger.
We can’t do it. Their minds are different. We could become trapped.
Caleb couldn’t guess how different the xaxkluth mind might be, and he didn’t have time to question the opportunity. If he didn’t find a means to pull the goliath away from the convoy, their second attempt to escape would likely end even more badly than the first.
He located the closest node, so bright and hot it burned his mind to turn toward it.
Caleb, please don’t do this.
“There is no other way. We promised the survivors we would get them to safety.”
It was a promise he had to keep.
40
Caleb
The heat and pressure nearly overwhelmed Caleb as he pushed against the xaxkluth’s mind, the Relyeh’s resistance every bit as powerful as he expected. In the back of his senses, Caleb recognized Ishek’s pain, the Advocate’s direct link in the chain putting the symbiote that much closer to the surface of the xaxkluth’s star.
A part of Caleb was remorseful to cause his counterpart so much agony. The other part understood what needed to be done and was willing to do anything to make it happen. It was that part of him which prevailed, continuing to push against the xaxkluth’s resistance.
It seemed like it took forever, but Caleb began pushing into the heat and light, his mind filling with the sensation that he was sinking through magma. The pain and pressure increased. It threatened to overwhelm him. To burn both him and his Advocate to death.
Ishek was right. He wasn’t strong enough.
The thought flashed through his head, along with a sudden sense of panic that he had just made a colossal mistake. He was going to die here. Brain death. Then the goliaths would hit the convoy and everyone else would die too. This was his idea. His plan. He had to see it through.
He found his second wind, refocusing his effort. He continued to sink, pure motivation driving him onward and keeping his brain and hope alive. Ishek began to calm slightly, and then the heat started to cool, the magma turning to mud as the xaxkluth’s defenses gave way.
The darkness behind Caleb’s closed eyelids faded, replaced with images aligned in a pattern like a broken window, the xaxkluth’s hundreds of eyes collecting data. Caleb was confused by the inputs, his human senses unable to compensate for so many thoughts. He nearly lost his hold on the xaxkluth, almost falling back into the magma before he had a chance to send a single command. He forged ahead, keeping his attention focused on the forward-facing eyes, the largest shards of what appeared as shattered glass. He was suddenly aware of limbs, dozens of limbs, again overwhelmed by the sheer volume of controls inherent to the creature. The xaxkluth could choose whether or not to secrete the slimy substance that became the Relyeh terraforming bedrock. It could open and close over thirty mouths plus its central maw, which had over a dozen different sets of individually operable teeth.
The alien was as sophisticated a design as Caleb could imagine. Like Ishek had warned, too complicated for him to control. He could sense its limbs. He could see through its eyes. He could almost taste the flesh of its most recent kill in its mouth and on its teeth. But he couldn’t manage it all. He couldn’t make the xaxkluth do what he wanted it to do. With the level of effort he had to maintain just to stay connected to it, he couldn’t do much of anything at all.
And he hungered…
His appetite was infinite. For food. For fear. He needed to grow. To expand. To become large enough to defeat this new threat. These giant humanoids that turned its brethren to pulp. That crushed them instead of eating them as if they were the lowest form of life.
Caleb’s consciousness started burning again as he once more tried to gain at least rudimentary control of the xaxkluth. Its mind was different than anything he had ever encountered, and he suddenly realized why. It wasn’t a singular entity, but instead multiple minds connected to a main controlling brain. Each tentacle was an individual consciousness, linked as if to the Collective through the central mass, and the central brain. Controlling that brain wasn’t enough because he didn’t have the capacity to handle its regular duties. He couldn’t make the xaxkluth do what he wanted. The best he could do was freeze it the way Walt had frozen it.
Which was the opposite of what he wanted.
He was tempted to abandon the creature. To release his hard-won handle on it and return to his body inside the tank. There was nothing he could do here.
Or was there?
He couldn’t handle every part of the xaxkluth, but did he need to? All he had to do was get it into range of the goliath so the creature would attack it instead of the convoy. He could do that much, couldn’t he?
He focused his attention on four of the limbs, treating the xaxkluth as if it were a person crawling on its hands and knees. He kept his vision locked on the main set of eyes, able to spot the nearby goliath from the xaxkluth’s position. He started shifting forward, the sensation of this type of movement as alien to him as the creature he was controlling.
It took a few seconds, but he started to get the hang of it, and within a few strides was moving ahead at greater speed. The xaxkluth had nearly given up trying to fight his control, which further eased the burden. Growing in confidence, he added two more limbs to the motion and let out a loud groan that captured the goliath’s attention just as it started to swing its leg. He could see the tank and APC were well past the creature but the large tractor trailer was directly in front of it, right in line with its approaching foot. He could see Sheriff Duke perched on top of the second vehicle, watching the giant with concern. He could see the Parabellum sweeping past overhead, prepared to make another run.
He sped forward, groaning loudly, desperate to get the goliath’s attention before it swung its foot forward and smashed the trailer. The APC peeled off from the convoy, pulling sideways and rotating its machine guns toward the goliath. Sheriff Duke pulled two large revolvers from holsters on his hips. He didn’t want them to hurt the giant. It was one of their best weapons against the xaxkluth.
He added two more limbs, pushing his ability to control the xaxkluth to the limit. Surprised by the alien’s speed, he leaped toward the goliath’s leg, the individual intelligences of the other tentacles grabbing for the trunk-like limb. He planted one of the xaxkluth’s tentacles and turned its central mass aside as the goliath whirled to grab it. The unexpected move took both the giant and the other tentacles by surprise. He saw now there was a second goliath incoming, and it turned in his direction.
Fear bloomed within the xaxkluth. It realized Caleb had stuck it in between two goliaths who both headed toward it. Caleb could sense its terror and desire to escape. He let go of its limbs, releasing his hold on its body. But he continued holding the connection. The xaxkluth were getting orders from somewhere, and he didn’t think they were coming from off-world. If he could trace the Collective back to the source maybe he could get a location.
He stayed with the xaxkluth as it fled, its panicked escape leading the goliaths away from the convoy. He waited for something else to make the connection. To tell the xaxkluth not to run, or at least to check and see what it wa
s doing.
He didn’t have to wait long. He felt the new presence when it arrived. He sensed its confusion to find him there, and its surprise when he reached out for Caleb’s consciousness before he could raise the xaxkluth’s defenses. He assumed whatever was controlling the xaxkluth was much, much stronger than he was. He didn’t stay to find out. That simple connection, that ping was all he wanted.
He released his hold on the xaxkluth and the Collective. His eyes snapped open.
“Colonel?” Hicks said. “What the hell happened to you?”
Caleb realized he was flat on his back in the tank’s belly. His body was shivering, and he was drenched in sweat. Ishek was alert. Almost too alert. The Advocate was pushing against his mind, trying to seize control in a fit of fury against him.
“Ishek?” Caleb said.
Ishek immediately began to calm, the pressure in Caleb’s mind subsiding as he sensed the Advocate’s relief.
You nearly killed us both.
“I’m sorry. I had to.”
“Colonel?” Hicks said, concern written all over his face. He was crouched down beside Caleb. His hand resting on the Marine’s shoulder, he gently shook Caleb. “Are you with me, Colonel?”
Caleb didn’t answer the deputy, his glassy eyes focused inward, where Ishek’s anger turned to amusement.
You tricked them.
Caleb wouldn’t call it a trick. “More like an ambush.”
Did you get anything? Yes. I see you did. A name.
That was all Caleb managed to take from the xaxkluth’s owner before he ran.
But maybe it would be enough.
41
Aeron
