Adventures of the Starship Satori 4: No Plan Survives Contact (5 page)

B
eth's yelp
tore John’s attention from the strange tracks in the dirt he was investigating. He rushed from the entrance toward her, giving the pool of water a wide berth. Something about that pool didn't sit well with him. Maybe it was just an old fear of the unknown, of places he couldn't see. But he stayed well clear of it.

"What happened?" Andrew asked. He'd reached Beth's side just before John.

"I'm OK. Just startled," Beth replied. John caught a good look at her face in the glare of his flashlight. Her cheeks were pink, but even more telling was that her ears had gone a tinge rosy. A clear sign in Beth that she was feeling self-conscious.

"What startled you?" John asked. He scanned the floor with a sweep of his flashlight, but didn't see anything unusual. Just the same bits of rubble that were scattered all over the room. His light glinted off water - another pool. This one was much smaller than the other, only a dozen feet across. He was about to move the flashlight away when he saw movement. The surface of the pool was rippling.

"Something ran over my foot," she said.

"What?" Andrew asked. He was sweeping his own light side to side now, scanning the floor for movement.

"What was it?" John asked her.

"Don't know. Couldn't see it. Maybe the size of a mouse, no bigger than a rat," Beth said.

He took another two steps toward the small pool, shining his light into the water. Something was making ripples across the surface. It could just be drips from the ceiling, but somehow he didn't think that was the case. He'd been fishing enough times to know what it looked like when a fish was traveling close to the surface.

The pool wasn't deep. He could see the rough rocky bottom, dotted here and there with little spots where sand had accumulated in a small hollow. A flash caught his eye, a bit of reflection from his flashlight as something zipped across the edge of the area it illuminated. He shifted quickly, trying to find it again.

"Gotcha," he said. "I think I found your mouse, Beth."

The others came up alongside him. The creature in the pool looked a bit like a centipede, except it was using its legs to swim instead of crawling. It dashed one way and then another, trying to evade his light. John kept it within the beam of his light, tracking it so that they others could see. It dodged frenetically, diving this way and that to evade the light. Something about it looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Ugh," Beth said. She shuddered. "It crawled over my foot."

"Interesting. So they're amphibious," John said. The creature zigged when he thought it was going to zag and he lost sight of it. His flashlight beam could only light a small portion of the pool. "Andrew, Beth - help me light this thing up?"

"No problem," Andrew said, cracking another half dozen glow sticks. He tossed the lights into the water, scattering them so that the entire pool glowed green.

There was a squeaking noise and scuttling sounds as several more of the creatures scattered from the pool on the far side. The sound of little legs scraping on rock faded as the creatures raced away from them, and ended with a series of plopping noises - the sound of something dropping into water.

"Wow," Andrew said.

"How many do you think there were?" John asked.

"I counted four splashes," Beth said.

"No guarantees they all went into the water though," John mentioned mildly. "We'll need to keep our eyes open. I saw two inch mandibles on that thing."

Were they predators? If so, what were they preying on? Perhaps the mandibles were only tools. Many insects on Earth used mandibles to carve things up or defend themselves rather than to tear apart prey. John found himself wishing that Linda had come along. Her insights would have been incredibly valuable here. This entire cave might be a vibrant ecosystem, hidden deep beneath the ground and somehow protected from the ravages of the ratzard blood. Which called to mind a good question.

"Why are there no ratzards here?" John asked aloud.

"Luck?" Andrew said.

Beth shook her head. "We surveyed the planet from orbit. Nowhere on the surface had open water like this. It's not like these caves are closed off. Nothing is stopping the things from getting in here and fouling this water just like they did on the surface.”

"That's what I was thinking too," John said. He looked around the cave. Those dark corners were looking more ominous than they had a few moments ago. Then with a flash he realized why the thing in the water had seemed so familiar. It looked an awful lot like a dragonfly larva. The things would scuttle around in ponds and lakes on Earth, eating whatever they came across that was smaller than themselves. They had the same sharp, dangerous look to them that the much larger alien arthropods in these pools exhibited.

Something scuttled toward the back of the cave, knocking about some rubble as it moved quickly from one pool of shadow to another. John couldn’t see what made the noise. Whatever it was had been the barest blur of motion in the pools of shadow. But it had been a lot bigger than the foot long things they’d seen so far. Much, much larger.

“We need to get out of here,” John hissed. He snapped his rifle up to track the dark corner where he knew something was hiding. “Right now!”

“What is it?” Beth asked.

“There’s something out there,” John said. “We need to get back up into the tunnels before…”

He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, and didn’t have time to say it. Something out of nightmare exploded from the darkness toward them.

C
harline checked the charges
. Each of them was still intact. Neither of them was tied in to her laptop or any other sort of wireless control. It ought to be impossible to hack the simple timers she’d placed on the detonators. It was possible that the AI had defenses in here that could eliminate her, however. She reached out to each timer and clicked the button that initiated the countdown. The screens lit up and began flashing numbers. In thirty minutes, the interior of the satellite was going to become a fireball.

Ideally she would be well on her way by then, but maybe she could use that as a bargaining chip against the AI inside. If it was smart, perhaps it could be reasoned with. If it had a sense of self, then maybe she could make it afraid of being destroyed. Of death. Hey, it was working on her. Her own hands were still shaking from setting charges that she knew would kill her if she didn’t get out of here in time.

Her hands went to the latches of her spacesuit helmet, but then she thought better of the idea. How hard would it be for the damned computer to evacuate the air from the room? Just because it was pressurized right now didn't mean it would stay that way. She needed to be careful.

The suit was bulky, but the Naga were big. She was able to slip down the hallway from the airlock toward the center of the satellite. The place was much more like a small space station than it was a satellite, she realized. There was even gravity here. It was clearly intended to have a crew, at least some of the time. Charline's hand went to the pistol she'd strapped to the leg of her suit, patting the thing to ensure it was still there. Just in case there was some living company over here.

Hell, in a pinch maybe she could just shoot the damned AI. She didn't think it would be that simple, though.

"Dan, I'm proceeding to the center of the satellite. You still hearing me?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm reading you fine," Dan replied.

"The charges will go bang in half an hour," she said. "If you can get even a short burst from the engines at that time you might be able to get away."

"That's crazy," he said. "If you're still in there..."

"Then I go up too. But the AI goes with me," she said. "We're gonna have a little chat."

"Good luck with that," Dan said.

Charline silently thanked him. She was going to need all the luck she could get.

The space in the center of the little station was small, a round control room with a single stool set in the middle. The Naga had tails. Maybe they all sat in stools rather than chairs with backs? Charline shook her head to clear her thoughts. She needed to stay focused right now, no matter how scared she might be. She'd faced worse situations than this. More or less.

Somehow that thought didn't really make her feel any better.

"So what makes you tick?" she asked aloud, sitting down on the stool and examining the consoles surrounding her. The sensor display was easy to spot. Then there was a panel that looked a lot like weapon controls. At least, it was covered with red buttons and had a targeting reticle with the Satori sitting dead center in the middle. The AI had at least half a dozen missiles ready to fire. Shit.

There was another console with a computer screen and keyboard, but none of the keys made any sense. She couldn't read Naga. But she did have her own laptop and her hand-made adapter. Charline glanced around the console, looking for a port that her plug might fit into. It wasn't hard to find, placed just up and to the left of the main control screen.

Computer designers might be the same all over the galaxy. Keep the connection ports as simple and universal as possible, and easy to access. It had been a stroke of luck that the Naga rifles all had a port on their sides. Maybe it was used to update the software that ran the guns, or something different entirely. Whatever the case, it was her way into this system now.

She plugged in and opened up her laptop. The system immediately ran into a series of firewalls that she couldn't hope to hack with this machine. Instead, she typed a query.

I would like to communicate with you.

The response was immediate.

For what purpose?

For our mutual benefit
, she typed.

There was a short delay before a tinny voice came from her laptop speakers.

"There is no point to communication. You will cease to exist shortly," it said.

"You can hear me?" Charline asked. "And you know English?"

"This unit assimilated all of the information from your systems as they were deleted," it said. "Your language was among the data absorbed."

Well, that was a plus. And a minus. How much additional data had this thing collected? Charline tried to recall what else was on the computer. Was there information about Earth? Nothing precise, probably. It wasn't like they had Wikipedia on their systems. But ship's logs, jump data, and lots of other clues were probably among the things the AI had downloaded from the Satori. If there were enough clues in the data, it might let the Naga find Earth. That would be disastrous. She had visions of a fleet of Naga warships in orbit, pummeling her homeworld.

"You say I'll cease to exist soon?" she asked. She needed to keep the thing talking and find out what it knew.

"By your own hand. Your devices will kill you."

"The bombs ought to take you out as well," Charline said. "Or we could negotiate our release in return for shutting them down."

"You over-estimate the value of your technology," it replied. "This unit is encased in a shell of hardened armor. It is unlikely that your bomb will do significant damage to this unit."

"Unlikely means it is possible," Charline said.

"The probability is roughly point zero zero zero 4 percent. This is deemed an acceptable risk for the capture of such a high priority target."

"Me?" Charline asked, confused.

"No, you will be deceased. Your ship is another matter. Commander Kazresh has placed a high priority on its capture."

That answered the question about whether Kazresh had survived the mess they'd made of his ship. Charline had been hoping he'd died, after what he did to Andy. No such luck. If he got his hands on the Satori, odds were good he'd be able to find enough clues to track their point of origin. With that information in hand she had no doubt that nightmare scene of Naga warships above Earth would become a reality. The AI had to be stopped before help arrived. She didn't have a damned clue how to do it, though.

"If you do turn off your devices, you might be allowed to live," the AI said. "A small burst broadcast was sent by this station and received. A ship should arrive to assist before long."

"Are you a little more worried about my bomb than you're letting on?" she asked.

"No. But removing even the small chance of destruction would be preferable. Appealing to your sense of self-preservation is logical."

She tapped her fingers on the console, then clicked on her radio link. The AI would probably listen in on everything she said, but the radio controls weren't part of the systems it had hacked.

Before she could make the call, she saw a warning flash from the radar display. A quick glance showed her that it was tracking a new contact. That contact was still a long ways off, but it was closing on the planet fast. Starship fast.

"Dan, we've got a bigger problem than we thought," she said.

T
he thing came
out of the dark at them with blinding speed. Andy had at least a little advance warning. He'd seen John raise the barrel of his rifle and point it at...something. He wasn't sure what had clued John in, but the split second of extra time his friend's movement had given him allowed him to get his own weapon up and aimed just as the thing charged.

He caught flashes of it as it approached and passed by his glow-sticks. Green light dimly lit segments of carapace, slashing mandibles as long as his arm, and legs. Lots and lots of legs. Way more legs than anything that large had any right to have. At had to be at least as big as a horse.

Andy fired more out of instinct and training than any conscious effort to take the thing down. Whether the shots went wild or just bounced off the thing, it didn't seem to slow it down at all.

"Run!" John shouted.

Andy held his ground another moment, giving his team-mates time to get clear. The thing was like lightning streaking across the cave floor. There was no way any of them were going to outrun it, and in close quarters it looked capable of tearing them all to bits in moments.

He dove sideways as it clattered through the spot where he'd just been standing. Its legs scrabbled against the rock to slow itself down. Fast and powerful, yes. But physics was working against it here. He couldn't run faster than it, but it couldn't turn well when moving that quickly.

It came twisting around about ten feet away from him, blocking his way to the exit. Andy hadn't planned for that. Hell, he wasn't planning much of anything at that point. He was reacting, fighting back as best he could against a threat unlike anything he'd ever fought. In a way it reminded him of the grim hand-to-hand combat against Kazresh. The Naga had also been alien, but that battle seemed normal compared to this one.

He dropped his rifle, letting it hang from the combat sling. It wasn't going to save him right now. One thing might. He fished in his chest harness as the thing rushed back toward him. It wasn't going as fast this time. Dodging wouldn't be so easy. It would slow as it approached, slash at him with the horrific pincers at the front of its body.

More visible now, the thing reminded him of a giant centipede. Smaller jaws clacked inside the mandibles, making him shudder and almost drop the grenade he wrested free from its pouch.

But he didn't drop them. He pulled the pin of the first as the monster slowed to a stop in front of him. He released the spoon as the thing's scimitar-like mandibles opened wide. Then he threw the grenade directly into the thing's face and backpedaled away from it, his feet splashing in water as he accidentally slipped into the edge of the pool.

He ducked his head away and closed his eyes as the grenade went off. It was a flash-bang; the fuse was set to be about a second or two long, and his aim had been perfect. Near as he could tell the explosion went off right in front of the monster’s face. The burst was bright enough that he could see it even through closed eyes. When he opened them the cavern was dark. His eyes needed precious seconds to re-adjust. He couldn't hear anything and staggered forward, wondering where the creature was. If it hadn't been affected it would cut him to bits.

An arm slipped under his shoulder and urged him forward. Andy stumbled blindly over the rubble strewn cave floor, almost falling twice despite the assistance. He vaguely had the idea someone was shouting something at him, but he couldn't hear anything over the ringing in his ears. He let himself be led forward, his sight slowly coming back. By the time he had lurched his way to the tunnel entrance he was seeing well enough to know it was John standing there beside him, helping him along. Of course it was. He smiled a little. John had never let him down.

Andy spared a quick glance over his shoulder, but the giant insect was nowhere to be seen. The blast must have made it decide to try elsewhere for a meal.

"Damned fool stunt," John was shouting.

Which was a relief. He knew his hearing would return, but it was good to have it back just the same.

"It worked, didn't it?" Andy said.

John winced. "Stop shouting!" John yelled back to him. "It's not my hearing that's messed up."

Beth was beside them then. She had her rifle up to her shoulder, covering the room. Her face was a grim mask, her lips a thin line. She looked about as unhappy as Andy could imagine someone being. He wondered what was going on with her. Sure, they'd almost been eaten by an alien bug, but they had made it. A few more minutes and they'd be clear of this place.

Danger was part of these missions. He accepted that. Andy was even beginning to feel good about it again. He'd wondered if he was still whole, still capable of being the fighter his friends needed after the experiences with the Naga and then the telepathic intrusion of the ear-alien. But hell, he'd just gone two rounds toe-to-toe with a monster straight out of a horror movie and lived. Maybe he was lucky as hell, but he'd survived.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Beth said. "I don't want to be down here if that thing decides it wants a snack."

"Agreed," John said. "We'll make for the surface and see if we can regain contact with the Satori."

Andy grimaced, the full weight of their predicament coming to bear again. If they couldn't reach Dan and Charline, then the Satori was in deep trouble. Although none of them were saying it out loud, it was possible the ship had been captured or even destroyed. Without it they would be marooned down there on a planet where the ratzards were beginning to look like they were the most hospitable life form.

"Let's hope so," Beth said. Then, showing she was thinking the same dark thoughts Andy was, she added, "I'm not looking forward to a diet of ratzard on a stick."