The Fallen

by Paul B Spence

  Jennifer got the impression that Cassandra was enjoying the situation. Deegan was watching Cassandra with a curious expression on his face. It was a mix of surprise and fear, and something else that Jennifer couldn't identify. The other people with Deegan seemed uncomfortable. Raven, the good-looking one, stood and left the room, shaking his head. She wished she could do the same.

  She didn't want to be a part of what she feared was coming. Cassandra always got what she wanted. Usually that was good for the resistance, but now she wasn't so sure.

  Chapter Seven

  Nathan Matthews had been working in the service tunnels under the city of Newhavensport for most of his short, brutal life. He looked older than his sixteen standard years. Life was hard in the city, and worlds out on the Federation Frontier didn't provide the same levels of medical care that the Inner Worlds did. Nathan's family had been the hereditary maintainers of the ice-melt tunnels that provided fresh water for the teeming multitudes above for at least six generations. He never thought about being anything else.

  Lucky these tunnels is so old, he thought as he walked.

  The light from his lantern reflected back oddly from the dampness on the walls. The deepest tunnels under the city had been built eight to nine hundred years before, when the planet was originally colonized. Nathan didn't know that, however. He only knew that the oldest tunnels were the sturdiest, and therefore liked working in them the best. The newer tunnels had a tendency to cave in, even when there weren't quakes. The ancient tunnels burrowed deep into the crust of the planet, providing warmth, power, and water from geothermal vents up to Newhavensport.

  Many of the tunnels near the surface of the planet had collapsed. Nathan didn't understand what had happened. He'd heard the official statement, like everyone else, but he'd never believed in spaceships and other outlandish things like that. He didn't know anyone who did, but he did know that without water, the people who had survived the falling rocks wouldn't survive much longer.

  The problem Nathan faced now was that the water had stopped flowing. He'd checked, but none of the lines had been cut by falling rocks. The problem was deeper.

  "That water control junction should be around here somewhere," he muttered to himself. "If I don't get us fresh water, we gonna be dead in a week."

  Nathan needn't have worried.

  For him, death was only a few steps away.

  "Damn it all to hell!" Lt. Commander Calvin Smith exclaimed, banging his fist against the desk.

  "Problems, Commander?" Tebrey asked casually.

  Smith glanced up and flushed darkly. He hadn't known the Special Operative was in the room with him. He was intimidated a bit by Tebrey. Smith couldn't even imagine what it must be like to be able to read people's thoughts, much less have powered armor and a massive bioengineered companion.

  "I'm sorry, Smith. I didn't mean to intrude on your moment of religious insight. You wanted me to help with quadrant sixteen today, remember?" Tebrey was amused by the commander's thoughts. He wasn't trying to snoop; the man was blaring them out there for anyone to pick up.

  "What?" Smith said, confused for a moment. "Oh, right. Listen, Tebrey, something has come up, and I could use your advice."

  Tebrey felt his stomach tighten with dread. "What's the problem?" He'd had a bad feeling for the last few days whenever he was on the planet. He’d known something was wrong; he just hadn’t known what. He had tried unsuccessfully to not think about the machine that had been at the center of the Empire encampment, and what might have come out of it.

  "Two days ago we received a missing persons report," Smith said.

  "Smith, half the city is buried under rubble. There are tens of thousands of people still missing." Tebrey settled into the chair across from him.

  "I know, but this was different," Smith replied. "This was someone on our list of confirmed survivors. His family said he never came home the other night."

  "What makes that so odd?"

  "The water system for the city has seized up. This Matthews fellow, the missing person in question, was working in the tunnels under the city to restore the water flow."

  "So he got caught in a cave-in. Did you send a team in to his last known location?"

  "I did this morning," Smith replied gravely. "I've lost contact with them as well."

  "What?" That made Tebrey sit up straighter, and his stomach convulse.

  "I have also received six more reports of missing persons this morning, all of them working in the tunnels under the city on the western side."

  Tebrey stood and paced across the office and back. "This isn't good."

  "I know that," Smith said. "I'd like to know what you think I should do about it."

  "Don't send anyone else down there. If what I think is happening is, then we are in big trouble."

  "What?" Smith asked. He'd worked with Tebrey for weeks. He had personally witnessed the man digging the mangled bodies of children out of the rubble without batting an eye; he'd never seen Tebrey this disturbed. Part of his mind insisted that Tebrey was actually scared, however absurd that seemed to Smith.

  "Remember that classified meeting with the captain?" Tebrey asked.

  Smith paled. Now it was his turn to be scared. He started to sweat. "You can't be serious."

  "I am," Tebrey replied.

  "But..." Smith was at a loss for words. "How could one of those things be here?"

  "They seem drawn to suffering, Smith. This whole planet must be like one rich feeding ground for them."

  "There has to be some other explanation," Smith pleaded.

  "I hope so," replied Tebrey. "I hope it's just a case of a few falling rocks or a communications breakdown. Do you want to take that chance?"

  "Oh, god," Smith said softly. "What do we do?"

  "I want you to get the captain on the line. Tell him what's happening, and request that he start procedures for an immediate emergency evacuation of this city."

  "Okay," Smith said, nodding. "He's going to love that. What are you going to do?"

  "I'm going to go down there and try to buy you some time."

  "He asked you to do what?" Captain Singh exclaimed.

  The bridge crew was working hard to appear not to be paying too much attention to the captain's conversation. They didn't want any part of the wrath they could hear in his voice.

  "He said we should immediately evacuate the city, Captain," Lt. Commander Smith replied. "He seemed very adamant about it." His voice was slightly staticky over the com link from the planet. There had been some kind of untraceable interference on the coms for the last three days. It was driving the sensor crews mad and didn't improve the captain's mood any.

  "And did he suggest how that was to be done, exactly? We don't have room for that many people, even if we shoved them into every nook and cranny in every ship in the flotilla. The temperature on the surface is too cold to send them out there; they'd die before morning. The man is mad!" Singh shook his head in disgust. "How long ago did he go down into the tunnels, Commander?"

  "Just a few minutes ago, Captain. I'd like to point out that we did lose contact with our men down there. We've been trying to reestablish communications, but we've got nothing."

  "So he jumps to the conclusion that it's some kind of alien boogeyman, and you just let him go?"

  "I don't know what I could have done to stop him, Captain."

  He has a point, Singh thought. "You realize, in worst case, it is probably just a small group of soldiers from the Wolf Empire who have been hiding out down there in the tunnels. We've encountered a few pockets of them in other places, you know."

  "Yes, sir. What would you like me to do?"

  "Clear out the lower levels and post guards over the entrances to the tunnels. Then lead a detail down there yourself and try to make contact with our men and the errant commander."

  "Yes, Captain."

  "And, Smith?"

  "Yes, sir?"

  "Be very careful down there," Singh said, and then a
dded quietly, "just in case the commander is right about this."

  Chapter Eight

  I really don't like this, Hunter thought to Tebrey.

  I don't, either, but can you think of anything better to try?

  No, but that doesn't mean there isn't something, Hunter retorted.

  Just keep alert.

  The tunnels led ever deeper into the crust of the planet. It was almost an hour before they felt the presence of something in the tunnels with them. It was a feeling of dread and loathing, and Tebrey's skin crawled as he thought about the last time he'd felt something like that.

  I guess it's too late to turn around, isn't it? Hunter thought to him.

  We can't let this thing get into the city above. Those people would be defenseless against something like this. We have to stop it.

  Yeah, well, I don't feel very defensive, myself, right now.

  The first physical signs of the creature came from a spray of dried blood on the wall of the corridor, several days old. It wasn't long before they found further signs. The marines who had entered the tunnels had fought, but it hadn't done them any good. They had been torn apart.

  Hours of cat-and-mouse through the tunnels led Tebrey and Hunter deeper, down into the catacombs. The entity teased them with its presence, more felt than seen. Tebrey tried not to think about which of them was the hunter and which the prey. He was afraid he knew the answer to that.

  Tebrey could feel it all around them.

  Scout ahead for a little bit, Tebrey suggested. He could feel it waiting to strike. It wanted him. He wanted it. Time to see which would prove stronger.

  I'd rather not leave you, just now. I feel like it is close.

  Hunter, just do it. Okay? Tebrey thought to him. I don't think it's going to come out while we're together.

  Of all the stupid…

  Hunter!

  I'm going!

  Tebrey watched the neo-panther as he stalked down the corridor. He didn't want to be separated from Hunter. It was the last thing he wanted, but he knew it had to be this way. Hunter turned and looked back along the corridor at him, feeling his regard. Tebrey waved.

  Watch out! Hunter's thought slammed into Tebrey's mind just as the entity he had been hunting materialized out of the wall in front of him.

  Tebrey got a single shot off before his plasma rifle was snatched from his hands, a roar of pain and flash of light the only signs that he'd hit his target. At least that suggested it could be hurt. Dark fire hurled Tebrey down the corridor, and he was struck with an unwelcome sense of deja-vu. This had happened before.

  The thing was man-shaped, a shadowy form of dark metallic smoke that oozed menace. The eyes glowed like the core of a plasma reactor. There was no sign of where the shot had hit it. It was completely unlike the thing he had killed on Cedeforthy, except for the way it felt.

  It felt like death.

  Join us, a voice whispered in his mind, like those in his nightmares. Tebrey fought to block it from his mind, but it too powerful.

  Tebrey could see Hunter racing back down to him, but the blast doors closed before the neo-panther could reach him. He was alone with the creature.

  Did you miss me? The thought seared its way into his mind. I missed you. No dropping out of hyperspace to save you this time. You will join us, and we will have you.

  Tebrey recoiled from the entity's touch upon his mind. He knew it too well. The memory of the torment it had put him through aboard the Kirov flooded through him, the memory of what it had done to Ripper.

  He drew his pistols and fired twin bursts of antimatter into the thing, blasting amorphous fragments from it. Its scream of pain almost caused Tebrey to black out, and then it sent dark fire flowing over the pistols. Tebrey only had a moment to register the metal decaying and crumbling before the pistols exploded.

  Agony overwhelmed Tebrey for a moment before his neural overrides kicked in and blocked the pain, vascular shunts sealing off the shredded arteries. His hands were bloody tatters, the armor on his forearms shattered.

  Join us, the voice demanded.

  "Go to hell!" Tebrey charged it, not knowing what he was going to do, only knowing that he had to hurt it for what it had done. It flung him casually against a wall with a flick of a seemingly insubstantial arm.

  It held him there against the wall with terrifying strength, its head only inches from Tebrey's helmet. Tebrey could sense a face trying to form in that mass of swirling darkness. He sensed some kind of mental turmoil amidst the rage and hunger.

  You will join us eventually.

  Tebrey kicked it, hard, with all the strength of his amplified armor, but the insubstantial flesh yielded to the blows without apparent effect. In desperation, he began the sequence that would overload his suit's fusion reactor.

  No! Hunter screamed. Tebrey could hear the cat pounding at the door.

  Oh, no, you don't, the creature crooned.

  The entity punched its clawed fist into his guts, the dark fire searing through the armor like a torch through tissue paper.

  Tebrey screamed. The pain was too much. Every bio-sensor on his display lit and screamed warnings at him. He could feel it inside him, its claws tearing through his organs to reach for his spine, the dark fire racing along his nerves, burning pain directly into his mind. He couldn't concentrate enough to continue the override sequence. He couldn't even remember what he'd been doing before the pain began. All he could do was scream. There was only pain.

  Hunter! He managed through the agony. Please!

  Hold on! We're almost through!

  It flexed its claws, and Tebrey screamed again. His arms and legs began to beat a staccato tattoo against the wall as he convulsed, overwhelmed. He could smell his organs cooking.

  The door was suddenly rent open, and blasts of plasma tore at the darkness of the creature. It shrieked and dropped Tebrey, its prey momentarily forgotten in this new onslaught. Tebrey fell to his knees and then onto his face. The medsuite on his suit was overwhelmed. There was nothing it could for injuries this severe.

  More blasts burned into the thing, and its screams tore at Tebrey's mind. Even through the fog of pain, the suffering of the thing got through. At last it fled in agony and fear, fading into nothingness.

  Tebrey passed out; his last sight was Hunter leaping through the ragged doors, a squad of marines behind him.

  Captain Singh felt less vulnerable once the Centaur made the transition into hyperspace. He knew that his ship wasn't truly any safer than it had been in orbit around Serendipity, but he still felt better to be away from that cursed planet and its millions of dead.

  He opened the secure file that held his new orders from Admiral Meleeka. Singh couldn't say that he was entirely happy to be working for Internal Security, but knowing what he did now, he didn't see how he could do anything else. With the Federation at risk from such a terrible threat, he had to be a part of the forces trying to set things right. And there was little doubt in his mind that the enemy was real and quite terrible.

  No doubts at all since he'd seen the visual record taken from Lt. Commander Tebrey's battlesuit after the commander's journey into the darkness under Newhavensport. Singh wished he hadn't seen it. Seeing what the commander had faced under the city had finally convinced the captain of the dire reality of the situation, not to mention what the entity had done to the commander himself. Singh shuddered in memory. Five of his marines were under psychiatric sedation just after a glimpse of the thing. Singh was sure he was going to have nightmares for the rest of life about it. He had no idea what state the commander's mind would be in when he awoke.

  In any case, Singh had a job to do, and he was going to do it. The Centaur was en route to the Fleet base at Prism in the 61 Cygni system, just over thirty light-years from Pi Orionis. It would take the Centaur thirty-six days in hyperspace to reach there. The Centaur was to re-supply, take some much-needed shore leave, and receive a few new crewmembers.

  Lt. Commander Tebrey and his companion wer
e also to be issued new equipment at Prism, assuming they had recovered. Tebrey was currently in Medical but was expected to recover the use of his limbs by the time the Centaur reached Prism. Captain Singh was instructed to then transport the commander to the Sol system for a very special conference at Luna, another sixteen days of travel.

  Singh sat back in to his chair and rubbed his neck. If the admiral was correct in her surmises, then they had a chance to strike a blow against the enemy from which the aliens might never recover. That was one of the reasons for the conference. The admiral had suggested that she possessed other information, but wanted to talk about it person.

  All they had to do was survive long enough to get there.

  Chapter Nine

  Admiral Mandor Shadovsky sat in his office and paged through the reports on his air screen with dread. There had been too many reports coming in of ships lost in hyperspace, too many reports of encounters with the aliens that the Sentient Concord had labeled collectively as Theta entities. There was just too much they didn't know about the aliens.

  He leaned back and rubbed his temples.

  "You look like you could use some coffee, sir," Bruce said, handing him a hot cup.

  Mandor glanced over at his aide. "A shower and some sleep would be better, Bruce. Have you seen the intelligence reports from Atlonglast and Serendipity?" Bruce Fresia had been his aide since Mandor took the position of Director of the Office of Internal Security of the Sentient Concord, five years before.

  "I have. To be honest, I don't make much of the report from Atlonglast. There's too much conjecture. Not enough facts."

  "Nevertheless, I want you to send a team, discreetly," Mandor said.

  "Anyone in particular? Maybe Imamu Chausiku and his team?"

  "Actually, I was thinking of Tonya Harris and Ghost."

  "Discreet and Tonya Harris don't really go together."

  "Just do it," Mandor said. "I want someone who has experience with Thetas on the ground there." He waited for Bruce's reluctant nod. "What did you think about the other?"