Dawn of Procyon (14 page)

Chapter 26

PSD 29-213: 1539 hours

The wreck of the Argoni dogfighter was a mere twenty paces away, and Landry’s heart was hammering so hard in his ears that he could barely hear the sound of the toboggan sliding behind him anymore. He was breathing heavily, but even the sound of air gushing in and out of his mouth was muted, coming in a distant second to that pummeling in his chest.

I’m going to die. This is it. This is it!

There was still no sign of the alien, but he had no doubt it was there. He knew that it was crafty. Most likely it was lying in wait on the other side of the wreck, biding its time until Landry was too close to even attempt an escape. It would spring out with that dazzling agility, descending upon him with—

“Landry?” HAIRI said quietly. “Are you going to move closer?”

“Just planning how to do that,” Landry whispered back.

“I suggest that you take the most direct route. That would expend the least amount of energy.”

“That simple, huh?” Landry glanced behind him, as he had done numerous times before, making sure the Toad hadn’t circled around to the rear.

Then he made up his mind.

Just get it over with.

He began forward, hauling his load behind him, and he became conscious of the sound of the toboggan sliding across the sand. It was
deafening
, he thought, so loud that there was no way the Argoni could possibly miss it.

Even if that scumbag doesn’t have ears, it’ll feel the vibration
, he thought.
This thing is like a seven point three on the Richter scale.

That was an exaggeration, obviously, but in the relative silence of the wasteland, the toboggan
was
noisy, especially when it scraped and clattered over rocks. He considered removing the umbilical and leaving the life support gear behind for a moment, try to get by on the air in his suit, but he knew that wasn’t really an option. It was far too risky.

No, this was how it had to go down. Him and the toboggan versus the Toad.

He was only ten steps away now. Nine. Eight.

“What a fascinating craft—” HAIRI mused.

“Shut up!”
Landry hissed. “Not now!”

Five. Four.

He began to run—or shamble awkwardly, more like it, he thought—hoping to catch the Argoni by surprise. Hauling the toboggan with all his might, he hobbled around the side of the dogfighter. Seeing nothing there, he kept going. The toboggan wedged against a rock and pulled the harness taut, sending his legs out from under him: he hit the dirt with a bone-jarring thud. He struggled to his feet and tried to pull the load free, but only succeeded in making it scrape loudly against the rock.

“Oh, for the love of . . .”

He moved back and shifted the toboggan clear of the rock, then continued around the back of the dogfighter. Within seconds he had completed a full circle.

The Argoni wasn’t there.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he panted. “A round of applause for the worst sneak attack in the history of the universe.”

“I thought you were trying to scare the Argoni off by making as much noise as possible,” HAIRI said.

Landry couldn’t quite tell if the AI was making a joke or not. It didn’t sound like it, he thought.

“Yeah, something like that.” He glanced around, then dropped to one knee, breathless. “I think I want to puke.”

“A natural response to nervousness and heightened excitement. Judging by your heart rate and—”

“No, it’s not that. Well, that’s part of it, but this thing
reeks
.” He waved a hand at the dogfighter. “I mean, it’s like Dodge grew to the size of a heavy transport and took a dump out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“Dodge?”

“Lionel Dodge. He’s my boss. Big fat guy who stinks.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, my point is that this thing smells as bad as a giant turd, or a corpse.”

“A decent comparison, I would say. From what we know about Argoni technology, they appear to be masters of organic manipulation. Even their spacecraft, such as this one, are made of entirely organic materials.”

“Are you telling me this dogfighter is . . . or was
alive
?”

“We believe so, but as I stated before, we have never been able to study their technology long enough to know for sure. It breaks down and dissolves rather quickly.”

Landry took a moment to get a good look at the dogfighter for the first time. From a distance it had looked black, but from this close he could see it was mottled black and grey, as if parts of it had become discolored. It was also grossly misshapen, as if it had begun to melt. He’d seen dogfighters in war footage from time to time, and this one was definitely in bad shape. As HAIRI had said, it almost looked like the ship was decomposing at an accelerated rate, sagging and wasting away before his eyes.

“I believe you are looking at the nose of the craft,” HAIRI said. “Would you mind moving further to your left?”

“Yeah,” Landry said, glancing around nervously. “I can do that.”

“The cockpit area should be set a little way back from where you are looking.”

“Huh? We came for the antenna, remember? I don’t see the parts that critter stole from the scout at all.
Any
of them.”

“Perhaps it placed them inside the wreck?”

“Oh, perfect. You’re going to make me dig through this giant pile of muck, aren’t you?”

“Stop,” HAIRI said suddenly. “There. Zoom in, please.”

Landry stared at the dogfighter, baffled. “At what?”

“There is a discoloration. Right in front of you.”

Landry saw the discoloration, a wad of lighter grey ooze in amongst the darker exterior, but he still failed to see the significance. “What about it?”

“That is the pilot.”

“Say what?”

“I believe that the discoloration is the body of the pilot.”

“This is no time for stupid jokes—”

“I have detailed imagery, documentation from other Argoni crash sites.” Images began to flick across Landry’s HUD. “In cases where the pilot is known to have escaped, there is no discoloration. In fact, the area you are looking at is hollow when no pilot is present. However, in crashes where the pilot was killed, we see a pattern much like what we are seeing now.”

Landry watched the images, his mouth agape. “Right, so the Toad flying the ship died in the crash, but his copilot—”

“No. As I told you before, the size of this wreck indicates that this is a single-passenger dogfighter. It is not possible for a second Argoni to have been present.”

“Okay, this is stupid. You’re telling me that the monster that steamrolled me yesterday came back here and decided to roll over and die, and now it’s nothing more than this puddle of goo?”

“No, there is another possibility.”

It hit Landry like a sledgehammer. “The pilot
did
die in the crash. The one that attacked me never came from this ship.”

“Exactly.”

Landry looked out across the coppery landscape again. “But then . . . where
did
it come from?”

At that moment, Landry caught movement in his periphery, and he instinctively hit the dirt, expelling a gush of air as he dropped heavily amongst the rocks. He whipped his head around, then focused on the thing that had caught his attention.

There among the boulders, perhaps two hundred meters away, a tall black creature was making its way steadily across the terrain.

“That’s it!” Landry whispered hoarsely. “That’s gotta be it!”

“Your adversary?”

Landry zoomed his camera to maximum, following the path of the Argoni. There wasn’t much he could make out from that angle, as the Toad was side-on and moving away from him. Something about the way it moved, however, seemed familiar.

“I think so,” he said.

“Has it seen us?”

“Doesn’t look like it. I think we got lucky.” He looked in the direction it was moving, and guessed that it was headed toward the ridge. “I think it’s going back to the scout for more parts.”

“A distinct possibility.”

Landry glanced back among the boulders, and he wondered if perhaps it had made some sort of camp where cover was more abundant. “Do you think it might have stashed the antenna over there somewhere?”

“If it did, now would be a good time to go and check. You could certainly sneak in while it’s distracted and spit on its barbecue.”

“That’s not actually a saying, HAIRI, but I get your meaning.”

“I believe it
is
a saying. Also, I noticed something nearby that you should look at.”

“What is it? Another fascinating discoloration?”

“Look to your right and see for yourself.”

Landry propped himself up in the dirt slightly and turned his head. Just out of reach, a grotesque, scaly black limb protruded from the dirt, looking to him like something out of a horror show.

Chapter 27

PSD 29-213: 0924 hours

“What do you mean they’re coming to kill you?” Cait said.

“Don’t go,” was all the girl replied, her eyes still wide and full of fear. Her fingers continued to dig painfully into Cait’s wrist, so she reached down and began to gently pry them off.

“Just relax. The medic said you’re going to be okay.”

The girl began to sit up. “You’re the one who pulled me out of there, aren’t you?”

Cait placed a hand on her chest. “Yes. My name is Cait. Now, lie down and put your oxygen mask back on—”

“What happened to the others? The ones I was with?”

Cait thought of the three dead men in the breach zone. She hesitated at the thought of having to tell the girl that her companions were dead.

“Uh, I don’t know—”

“
Tell
me,” the girl insisted.

Cait gripped the girl by the shoulders and firmly laid her back down onto the bed. In the child’s weakened condition it was not a difficult task. “I’m going to call for the medic,” Cait said as she reached for the oxygen mask. “When she comes back—”

“Please,” the girl said softly, her eyes pleading. She held up a hand to block the mask before Cait could put it back on her face. “You have to listen to me.”

Cait sighed. She wasn’t sure what was going on here, but she knew that she probably shouldn’t get involved. Both the explosion and the girl’s illegal presence on the outpost were obvious signs that something wasn’t right.

But the way the girl looked at her, the vulnerability Cait saw in her eyes, somehow cut through her sense of distrust. Cait could only feel compassion for her, despite her misgivings.

“All right, I’ll listen,” Cait said. “But you have to be straight with me. No lies. Got it?”

The girl nodded. “Okay.”

“First of all, who are you, and why aren’t you on the list of people who live here?”

“My name is Fraxa, and you won’t find any stuff about me because . . . well, I’m not supposed to be here.”

“What do you mean? Why aren’t you supposed to be here?”

“Something happened and I . . .” Fraxa shook her head and looked away.

“I told you to be straight with me, remember?”

Fraxa looked back at her, and now there were tears in her eyes. “I’m trying. This is hard for me, okay? I haven’t told anyone about it before.”

“About what?”

“They killed my parents, all right?” she said, anger creeping into her voice. Her mouth compressed into a hard line. “They killed them, and they took me.”

“Who?”

“Archer and his gang.”

Cait held up her hands. “Wait a minute. Go back to the start. Where are you from?”

“I grew up on Earth, in a town called Ravenshoe. My mother worked for a building company there. And Dad was a teacher at the local school. My best friend’s name was Claire, and I had a dog called Hobo.

“We were happy there. It was
nice
. Claire and I even built a tree house in the rainforest on the edge of town. We’d ride our bikes there after school and play princesses.”

“Okay,” Cait said. “I believe you. But how did you end up here?”

“My mum got a new job in some outpost, a long, long way from Earth. She was an engineer. She was really good at her job.” Fraxa gave a disconsolate shrug of her shoulders. “Too good, I guess. Dad said they were paying her a lot of money in the new job.”

“Which outpost was it?”

“I don’t remember. All I know is that it was a long way from home. Dad told me I probably wouldn’t see Claire again, and we couldn’t even take Hobo. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay on Earth and live with Grandma, but they told me I had to leave.”

“And what happened then?”

“Something went wrong on the ship. On the way to the outpost, I mean. Men with guns came. I don’t know how it all happened.” Her eyes were tearing up again. “I was scared. Mum went to find out what was going on and she never came back. Then they came to our room and Dad . . .” She shook her head as tears spilled down her cheeks. “He tried to protect me.”

Cait reached out awkwardly and placed her hand on Fraxa’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

“And then I ended up here.” Fraxa shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know how. They stuffed me in a cage with some animals . . . and it smelt so bad I thought I was going to die . . . and when they took us out, Archer was waiting. He took me away.”

“Who’s this Archer?”

“Dion Archer. He runs the crew here.”

“What does this crew do?”

“Steal stuff. Kill people sometimes, too, I think. I don’t know.”

Cait edged forward. “Fraxa, what did they do to you?”

Fraxa looked away again. “I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

“Did they hurt you?”

“They used me, okay? That’s all. They used me to climb through air vents and stuff out on jobs. Tight spaces. Places only a kid could reach.” Fraxa sat up again. “Archer told me that he’d kill me if I did anything wrong. And he said if I ever tried to escape that he would come after me.” She was beginning to panic again. “He said that he’d—”

“All right, that’s enough,” Cait said firmly. She gave the girl a pat and placed the oxygen mask on her face. “You’re going to relax. You’re in no danger here in the Infirmary. There’s only good people here.”

“There are no good people anywhere,” Fraxa said sourly, her voice muffled by the mask.

“Of course there are.”

“There aren’t. Especially not in this place.”

Cait glanced at the doorway, but there was no sign of Dr. Nagarkar yet. Considering Fraxa’s fragile state, she decided that it might be best to keep the girl talking. Perhaps that would help to calm her down, she thought.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened out there where I found you ?”

Fraxa attempted to pull the mask away, but Cait held it firmly in place. The girl sighed and then relented. “We were on a job.”

“Doing what?”

“Stealing stuff, like always.”

“Stealing what?”

“How should I know? I just do what Archer tells me.”

“There was an explosion out there. Do you know how that happened?”

“We planted a bomb, one of the ones Archer builds. He wanted to get through to the next area, I think. I never like the sound of the bang. It hurts my ears. So I try to find a place to hide when they set it off.”

“Is that why you were in the storage box?”

“Uh-huh. Archer and the others already took out the gear, so there was room for me to fit inside. Archer doesn’t like me getting in there, but . . .” She shrugged. “Anyway, after the bang, the box got rolled over. There was lots of wind and noise. I could tell something was wrong.”

Cait watched the girl’s face carefully. Her breathing was beginning to come under control now, and she seemed somewhat more relaxed than before.

“The bomb opened a hole in the wall to the outside. That’s what happened.”

“Yeah. I figured it was something bad.” She blinked rapidly, lapsing back into a mild panic. “I . . . I couldn’t breathe. I tried to get out. I thought I was going to die—”

“Calm down,” Cait said soothingly. “It’s all right now.”

Fraxa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be here. I should never have left home.
We
should never have left home.”

“Your mother did nothing wrong by getting a new job, even if it was a long way from home.”

“She didn’t have to take it.”

Cait shrugged. “It sounds like her job was important. Maybe the outpost really needed her to be there.”

“I wish outposts never existed,” Fraxa said bitterly.

Cait smiled patiently. She was aware that she needed to get moving, but with Fraxa still agitated, she thought it might be best to stay until Dr. Nagarkar returned. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. She tried to think of another topic to keep Fraxa’s mind occupied.

“You understand we’re in the middle of a war with the Argoni, right?”

“Of course.”

“Do you know why outposts are so important?”

“No.”

“Have you heard of the Fold Perimeter, Fraxa?”

Fraxa shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Would you like me to explain how it works?” Fraxa shrugged noncommittally, so Cait continued. “You know about fold engines, right?”

“Kinda.”

“So, the fold engine is what allows deep-space travel. Ships that use them can fold space and move great distances in the blink of an eye. The thing is, the act of folding space only works between star systems. Point-to-point between two stars.” She got up and moved over to a lamp beside the bed, then pointed at the light embedded in the ceiling. “Say the light bulbs were stars, a fold ship could go from this lamp to the ceiling, but not from here to say, you lying there on the bed.”

“Why not?”

“You can’t just fold space and pop out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated. Gravitational forces that are exerted around stars, stuff happening at a level so small that we can’t even see it. You’d need to talk to a physicist about it.”

“You’re not a physicist?”

“Nope, just a humble Optech.” She could see that the conversation was taking the girl’s mind off the traumatic events of the morning, so she kept going. “In addition to that, there’s a maximum distance that those stars can be apart, about fourteen point two light-years. So if you’re trying to jump to a star that’s say, fifteen light-years away, you won’t make it.” She considered an analogy. “So you could jump from here to one of the light bulbs in adjoining rooms, but not to one that’s over in the Cross, for example. The fold engine won’t even start up.”

“And that’s because . . . ?”

“Physicist stuff again.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“What that means is that in order to get to Earth, you have to jump from one of the nearest star systems. Now, we don’t understand much about Argoni technology, but we’ve never seen them jump further than fourteen point two light years, so we believe that they have the same restrictions as us. It’s just something about folding space that can’t be changed. So with that in mind, as long as we place outposts in the star systems that are less than fourteen point two light-years from Earth—that’s thirty-eight in total—we should be able to catch any Toad warships coming through. It’s what’s called the Fold Perimeter.”

“So why don’t the Toads just jump here, then quickly jump past before we can stop them?”

“Once again, it’s a limitation when folding space. After a ship has folded through a gravity field, there are quantum fluctuations left over in any material that has passed through the fold.”

“Quantum?”

“That stuff happening at a level so small we can’t see.”

“Oh, right.”

“So that’s
any
material. Steel, titanium. Plastic. Human skin and bone. If another fold is attempted before everything settles down again—theoretically around sixty-nine hours, although most regulations state eighty—the fluctuations increase, and that’s when matter simply rips apart.”

“So if you try folding again too quickly, you get turned into goo?”

“More or less.”

Fraxa seemed completely at ease now. “Gross.”

“And those sixty-nine hours are usually enough for our friends the Marines to detect and intercept a Toad warship in the system. Once again, the Toads have the same limitations as us.” Cait sat on the edge of the bed. “So you see, outposts are very important. They’re the last line of defense between Earth and the Argoni.”

Fraxa thought that over. “So if we–”

At that moment Dr. Nagarkar appeared through the doorway, carrying what looked like a silver bracelet. “She’s awake?”

“Yeah,” Cait said. “She’s been telling me about what’s happened to her.”

Dr. Nagarkar nodded, drawing back the heat-mesh and slipping the bracelet around Fraxa’s ankle.

“What’s that?” Fraxa said, alarmed.

“Just relax, sweetheart,” Dr. Nagarkar said. “Everything’s fine. I’ll be back to talk with you in a minute.” She gestured to Cait’s EVA suit, which lay on the floor beside the bed. “Cait, can you come with me, please? Bring your things.”

Cait hefted the EVA suit, offering Fraxa a brief smile. The girl sat upright and watched Cait, her eyes entreating, but she said nothing.

Even without words, the message still came through loud and clear to Cait.

Don’t leave me.

As Cait left the room, Dr. Nagarkar pulled her aside in the corridor. “Thank you for staying with her, Cait. We should be able to take it from here.”

“She told me her story. She was kidnapped, Doctor—”

“That’s not something you need to be concerned about. Outpost Control has been notified. They’ll be here soon to investigate.”

“She’s a victim–”

“That’s for the authorities to determine.” She didn’t back down under Cait’s glare. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just following standard procedures.”