Arrival (42 page)

Jack shot twice more, once in the left side of the creature’s neck, the second slamming squarely into the base of its skull. The latter severed the creature’s spinal cord, the impact causing the lower portion of the creature’s head to explode outward, spraying blood and tissue to either side. The creature fell to the ground unceremoniously, landing on top of Will.

The dead creature was heavy, and Will could barely breathe under its enormous weight. He tried to scream for help, but could hardly get out more than a whisper. He could hear Jack calling to him in desperation as he approached, the sound of his footsteps becoming louder as he came down from the rock and scurried the last few meters across the ground to reach him.

“Are you alright?” Jack yelled.

“Get it off me,” Will begged in a half whisper.

Jack planted his right foot firmly against the dead creature’s side and gave it a good shove, rolling it off of Will to his right.

“Will! Are you alright?” Jack asked as he reached down to help him up.

Will said nothing, still speechless.

“Look at the size of this thing!” Jack added. “It’s huge!”

“Yeah, and heavy!” Will finally said between pants.

“This is great!” Jack added as he stroked his hand along the dead creature’s fur. “Feel how soft this fur is, Will. This will do very nicely.”

“I was almost killed, and all you can think about is a new winter coat?”

“Come on,” Jack ordered. “Help me skin this thing.”

* * *

Laura was working late that evening, doing some organizing in the new genetics-hut. Normally, she would’ve been relegated to doing her work in the lab on board the LRV. But since they had the resources of three survey-equipment pods instead of the usual one, there were a few extra hut-kits available.

She was determined to finish setting up the interior of her new lab before bedtime. The lab on board the LRV, while adequate, was too cramped for her taste. And she hated sharing it with other scientists who didn’t follow her same meticulous procedures.

Laura nearly dropped a tray of sample tubes when she heard the noise. It was loud, nearby, maybe in the next hut over. It sounded like someone had knocked over something metal onto the floor. She set the tray down, her heartbeat only now beginning to fall from her throat back down to her chest where it belonged. She moved toward the door of the hut, curious as to the source of the sudden disturbance.

Then there was another noise. It was not as startling as the previous one, but more gradual, like a scratching of metal. Laura opened the door slowly and peeked outside. It was dark out, the inner compound of the camp lit only by the blue-white floodlights built into the side of the LRV. The sky was cloudy and overcast, allowing no more than an occasional hint of moonlight to reach the ground.

She looked to the left and the right of the hut, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. She headed to the right, guessing that the noise was coming from the storage-hut toward the back of the camp.

Another crash. But from behind her this time. Laura spun around.
It must be coming from the ag-hut
, she thought. Then another crash, like a wire rack bouncing off the aluminum decking that covered the floor of the ag-hut. Laura pulled down her mic. “Lynn?” she whispered. “Lynn, this is Laura. Do you copy?”

“
Go ahead, Laura,
” Lynn’s voice responded moments later.

“Is Sara inside?”

“
Affirmative. Why, do you need her?
”

“There are strange noises coming from the ag-hut. Like there’s something in there,” Laura explained in a whisper.

“
Stay put!
” Lynn ordered. “
We’re on our way!
”

“Mac! Tony!” Lynn bellowed from the corridor entrance at the front of the wardroom. “We’ve got trouble! Move it!”

Tony froze in mid-pull on the resistance gym, looking at Mac for a brief second. Mac jumped from his stretching, running forward. Tony released the lat pull bar, letting it fall with a loud clang as he jumped up to follow Mac.

When they got down to the EVA bay, they found Lynn breaking out rifles and ammo. “Laura reports noises coming from the ag-hut,” she told them as she slapped a magazine into a rifle and handed it to Mac. “Like something’s moving around inside there.” Lynn handed another loaded rifle to Tony.

Laura hadn’t heard another clang in over a minute. The silence was making her even more curious, and she found herself inexplicably drawn toward the door of the ag-hut, despite Lynn’s orders to stay put. She listened intently as she reached for the door, pulling it open, slowly and silently. Peering inside, she saw nothing near the door itself, and slipped quietly through, her curious nature as a scientist overriding any sense of caution and self-preservation.

Laura stood still for a moment, looking around the hut. A table was knocked over. A bag of seeds was torn open and strewn across the aluminum deck, most having fallen through the deck onto the bare ground below. Several plants were torn out of their pots, their leaves ripped from their stalks and scattered on the floor.

Suddenly, she heard a strange grunting sound to her left, beyond the vertically-stacked racks of wheat plants Sara was cultivating. She listened a moment more. It sounded like an animal, eating, smacking its lips and grunting as it chewed its meal.

Lynn hit the ground running at the bottom of the ramp, her weapon held high, with Mac and Tony hot on her heels. They circled around to the left of the LRV’s nose, expecting to see Laura standing out in the open near the ship’s tail, across from the ag-hut. But she wasn’t there.

Mac was also quick to notice that Laura was gone. He reached forward and grabbed Lynn’s jacket, pulling her back and to the side to take cover with him. She obviously had no tactical training, and was going to walk right up to whatever was making all the noise.

“What are you doing?” Lynn sputtered, nearly falling over.

“What were you planning to do, Lynn? Walk up to it and ask it some questions?” Mac looked across to Tony. He was tucked against the LRV directly across from them. He motioned for Tony to move forward. Mac pulled Lynn around behind him and trained his weapon on the ag-hut entrance to provide cover for Tony.

Tony ran forward a few meters to his next hiding place, staying low along the way. Once he was hidden again, he trained his own weapon on the ag-hut and motioned for Mac to come forward.

Mac raised the barrel of his rifle, pointing it skyward as he ran a few meters past Tony, ducking into another hiding place.

Laura moved to her left, stepping carefully so as not to alert the intruder of her presence. She could feel her heartbeat climbing up into her throat, her respirations quickening as adrenaline surged into her bloodstream. She rounded the first stack of wheat racks and found nothing. She rounded the next stack, only to find a rack on its side a few meters down the row. She was about to move past the next and last row when she noticed something just beyond the fallen stack a few meters in front of her. Something blue and shiny. Blue, shiny, and moving.
It has hair!
Long, blue, shiny, hair, on the head of some animal, moving back and forth, bobbing up and down as it grunted and chewed and slurped. She took a careful step forward, crossing over a knee-high barrel lying on its side in her path.

Laura tried to control her breathing, allowing only the slightest and slowest breaths in and out, trying to remain silent. She could see the creature’s head and shoulders, at least the back of them. It had a shape similar to a humanoid. Skull, neck, shoulder girdle, even ears. It was covered with the same, shiny blue hair, long and luxurious on its head, shorter on its body. It looked small, much smaller than a human, as it hunched over an open bag of seeds, consuming them by the handful.
The hands!
She thought.
Four fingers and a thumb!

“
Laura?
” Lynn’s voice whispered over the comm-set. But it was enough. The creature spun its head around, spying Laura as she stood there, her mouth hanging open in amazement. It looked at her for a moment, its head cocked oddly to one side as it examined her, trying to decide if she was a threat.

“
Laura?
” Lynn’s voice repeated more urgently. Something about the squawking of the comm-set made the creature nervous. Its mouth opened, revealing long, fang-like teeth as its mouth tightened up into a snarl. A low growl began to emanate from deep in the creature’s throat and its eyes narrowed, becoming more sinister as it sized up its opponent.

Laura began to back away as the creature stood up. It was not nearly as small as she had first imagined, standing well over two meters when it rose to its fully erect position, its large chest expanding as it spread its arms into an aggressive stance.

Laura backed away quickly. Forgetting about the barrel behind her, she fell backwards, landing on her back with a scream, her lower legs still draped over the barrel.

Suddenly, the door to the hut flew open, and Mac’s large, muscular form sprang through with astonishing speed and agility. Tony came in behind him, fading to the right, opposite from Mac.

The sudden intrusion startled the creature, causing it to dive at Laura instinctively. She screamed as the creature landed on top of her, its strong hands pinning her shoulders to the deck in its claw-like grasp. She shrieked as several razor-sharp claws penetrated her skin and dug deep into her upper chest and shoulder.

Mac heard Laura’s screams and leapt into action, swinging around the far end of the racks, searching for her. Two rows over, he spotted them, locked in a life-and-death struggle as she tried to hold the creature at bay. Mac sprinted a few steps down the passage, leaping over the fallen rack and diving through the air in a flying tackle, knocking the creature off of her.

Laura screamed out in pain as one of the creature’s long claws ripped open her shoulder as it was knocked off her.

Mac rolled around on the deck with the creature, holding its snapping jaws away from his face as he struggled to reach his knife.

Tony came around the corner next, jumping over Laura to get to Mac and the animal, who now held the superior position, sitting on top of Mac, pinning him to the deck. He reached around the creature’s neck with his right arm, putting it in a chokehold as he tried to pull it off of Mac.

That was all the help Mac needed. In that brief instant while the creature’s attention switched away from him, Mac pulled his knife from its sheath at his hip, and shoved the long blade deep into the creature’s abdomen.

The beast let out an ear-splitting howl as Mac twisted the knife around in its gut, then drew it upwards, slicing it wide open. It lurched, its body in spasm as its guts spilled out all over Mac’s torso. Finally, the creature went limp in Tony’s chokehold; a long, grumbling sigh coming from its open mouth as it took its last breath.

Lynn entered the room and was hovering over Laura, shielding her from the battle as it ended. “Medical emergency in the ag-hut!” Lynn bellowed over her comm-set as she laid Laura down carefully on the deck, blood spurting from her gaping shoulder wound.

Tony dropped the creature’s dead carcass to the side, reaching out to help Mac to his feet. “You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Mac rose and looked at the dark, brownish-red blood and alien tissue splattered all over his torso. “Oh, yuck! This shit stinks!”

Lynn quickly pulled her coat off, wadding it up and pressing it over Laura’s wound in an attempt to slow down her bleeding. “Give me a hand! She’s hurt!” Lynn called to them.

Tony turned and stepped over to help, straightening Laura’s legs out and using his own jacket to keep her warm. Mac watched in horror. Laura looked pale, almost white. There was a huge pool of blood spilling out of her shoulder, flowing down through the deck and onto the ground below.

Maria arrived a minute later, having run all the way, with her med-kit in hand. Sara and Adia were right behind her, hauling whatever medical gear Maria had instructed them to carry. Maria immediately went to work, placing an oxygen mask on Laura’s face and starting an intravenous line through which to replace her missing fluid volume. “We’ve got to get her back to the med-lab!” she ordered. “Her subclavian vein is severed! If I don’t close it up quickly, she’ll bleed out!”

“Mac! Tony!” Lynn snapped. “Get her to the med-lab!”

Maria looked up, seeing the strange, dark blood covering Mac’s legs. “Whoa!” she barked, noticing the dead creature in the corner. “Is that stuff on you from that thing?” she asked.

Adia gasped, as did Sara, when they noticed the lifeless creature lying on the deck only two meters away from them.

“What is that thing?” Adia asked in horror.

“That’s the same creature I saw in the woods in that valley!” Mac realized.

“Tony? You get any on you?” Maria interrupted.

Tony looked himself over, “I don’t think so!”

“Okay, you carry Laura back to the med-lab!”

“Yes ma’am,” Tony agreed as he stepped forward and picked her up.

“And you,” Maria barked at Mac. “Don’t set foot inside the ship until you’ve been decontaminated!” she added as she followed Tony out the door, with Lynn and Adia carrying her medical gear.

“Don’t worry,” Sara promised. “I’ll hose him down.”

* * *

Several hours later, Jack and Will returned to camp carrying the creature’s furry hide and several kilograms of what looked to be the best cuts of meat it had to offer.

Using the experience he had accumulated on their journey thus far, Will cooked up some of the meat for dinner, using various herbs and roots that he hoped would help to tenderize the meat and bring out its natural flavors. Meanwhile, Jack set to work preparing the rest of the meat for preservation as jerky.

After dinner, they both went to work cleaning the inside of the creature’s hide of blood and tissue, determined to craft some sort of protection against the coming winter.

Before bed, Will continued with his nightly ritual of flute practice, filling the night air with half-completed melodies. Jack wrapped the rest of the meat in a bag and strung it up from a tree branch well removed from camp where, hopefully, no animals could get to it during the night.

They had decided to stay put for another day or two, long enough to turn the meat into jerky and fashion something of use from the fur of the creature that had nearly taken Will’s life.

“You know,” Jack returned from securing the bag of meat, “that almost sounds like a melody.”

Will stopped playing and lowered his flute to his lap. “Really?” he asked, stunned at Jack’s comment.

“Yeah, the style sounds sort of familiar.”

“I was trying to come up with something catchy, but not too complex, so it would be easy for me to remember the fingerings.”

“Play a little bit more of it,” Jack urged.

Will lifted the flute to his lips and began. A lilting, albeit slightly sloppy, song emerged from the flute as Will’s fingers fumbled to find the notes. The melody was haunting, leaping from low to high pitches in slow, methodical patterns. Occasionally, Will would slur notes together—whether it was on purpose or by accident, Jack wasn’t sure—giving the tune a magical effect. There was a warmth to this live performance, one that he never would’ve envisioned.

Will ended the tune with a slight trilling of the last note, before resting his flute in his lap once again, awaiting Jack’s response.