Vas tapped Ciro’s shoulder harder and harder until he woke up.
“What?” Ciro grumbled. “What is it?”
Adan handed him a canned coffee. “No, I won’t marry you.”
Ciro opened the coffee and drank it down. “You woke me up to tell me that?”
“We overslept.”
“How can that be? It’s still dark out.”
Ciro smiled when he heard Reyer’s laugh.
Reyer said, “He means we actually all got eight hours of sleep.”
“And that’s a problem?” Ciro asked.
From up in the cockpit, Lynx said, “Eight hours is a required minimum for continued health. All my resources—”
“Your resources aren’t trying to fight a war,” Vas said.
Lynx paused. “Many of my resources are being used in a war, and my specific resources relating to the treatment of injured soldiers often mention how rest helps to facilitate healing, Captain.”
Vas pointed at the bot. “Stop using her as an excuse. We could have let Reyer sleep while we worked.”
“Me?” Reyer snickered. “He was talking about you too, Vas.”
The captain went to touch the small bandage on his head which mostly served to highlight the massive bruise around it, but when he raised his arm, pain shot through his shoulder, reminding him that he hadn’t walked out unscathed from his altercation with the squad of bots. “Yes, well…”
After that well-thought-out and articulate speech, Ciro stood up and stretched. “All right, Adan. What do you need me to do?”
“Find the ping. It was released five hours ago. We have to talk to the generals.”
Ciro Vas instantly came to life. He grabbed up two tablets and a handful of wires and ran up to the cockpit.
“Not my seat!” Vas yelled.
Lynx moved so Ciro could sit down. Reyer watched Ciro with admiration, unsure how a human with only two arms could plug so many things in so quickly.
It took almost three hours of scanning, but then Ciro stood up while pressing his headphones over his ears.
Reyer had motioned to him with her head when she saw him rise. Vas stood up from their chess game and went over to his brother.
Ciro was grinning. “It’s them.” He picked up his tablet. “I’ll get our coordinates and send—”
“No!” Adan said.
Reyer eased herself over to the stairs.
Ciro, surprised by Adan’s response, stared at his brother.
The captain went on, “I need you to listen to the entire message. Decrypt it from beginning to end—”
“Adan, it’s the standard sub-wave message acting as a call out. I designed it myself.”
“Just…double-check. Find out where their coordinates are, but don’t send anything to them. Not yet.”
Ciro sighed. “If that’s what you want, Captain.” He pushed his brother aside. “I’ll need you to clear out so I can have Lynx set up to record. Oh, and you’ll have to let me borrow your seat.”
Vas looked suspiciously at his brother, but he couldn’t prove Ciro didn’t actually need it. He stepped down next to Reyer.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I was thinking about what you said yesterday—if not yesterday, then before we went to sleep, anyway—” Vas shut his eyes. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been on a planet for a real sunrise and sunset, hasn’t it?”
“I was on one, but I didn’t get to enjoy the view,” she reminded him. “What about what I said?”
“We don’t know how many xenos there are. Right now, everyone I trust is on this ship. Everyone else has to be vetted.”
When Ciro was done, he brought the message down to his brother.
“Standard ping. It was scrambled according to code and sent on the channel that was announced at the end of their last transmission. Do you want the exact message attached?”
Vas nodded.
“‘This is a general summons to any displaced units.’” Ciro handed over a tablet. “That’s followed by these new coordinates. It could be a temporary base, or it could be the new Home Base if Falk has been working overtime.”
Vas stared at the tablet. “How many people would be looking for this signal?”
Ciro shrugged. “All the evacuation ships, any squads left over from the battle, single ships that escaped on their own—it’s hard to say, Adan. That’s why I should be heading there now.” He tapped the tablet. “I’m good at finding the ping. Jordan wanted me to help hunt down the lost stragglers that might not know where to look. Then I’ll have to start rebuilding the servers and putting the information into the new system—”
“I’m sorry, Ciro. We can’t go.”
“What?”
Vas stood up. “Can you send a message back to those coordinates without anyone being able to tell where it’s coming from?
Ciro held his hands out from his side in exasperation. “I guess I could rig up a return ping. Why though? You don’t want them knowing where we are?”
“Not yet. Explain the situation. Tell them to have the bots run everyone’s blood—and I mean everyone’s blood—to look for xenos.”
“You think there could be more?”
“I’m not taking Reyer to any Rising base until every person on it has been screened.”
Lynx said, “Captain, if a xeno joined the Rising as a xeno, as you theorized regarding Private Bray, screening their blood and comparing it to their profile won’t help.”
“I’d rather waste time than miss something obvious. Ciro, do it.”
Ciro took back his tablet. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t argue either. When he was at the top of the stairs, he turned. “You do know that, depending on how many bots they have, that could be days?”
“Master Ciro,” Lynx said, “did you include the time that would be required for the bots to be programmed if they’ve never drawn and analyzed blood before?”
“Make that weeks.”
“I’m aware of it, Ciro,” Adan said. “Thank you.”
“We’re going to be on our own until then?” Reyer asked.
“I’m afraid so. Are you getting cabin fever already?”
Alix held up her thumb and index finger, a scarce centimeter apart, then she let her hand drop. “But it’s not like we won’t have plenty to do.”
“You mean like sleeping for another full eight-hour stretch? Playing more chess?”
“I was thinking more about finding a certain planet outside the boundary zone. I want to know why the Supremacy wants it so badly.”
“I see now my suggestion was ridiculously dangerous and difficult. I apologize. Why not go seek out an abandoned, unsettled planet the Supremacy is willing to torture you to find? At least the security should be light.”
Reyer smiled. “Do you have star charts?”
“Not for anything outside of the boundary. For that,” Vas pointed up to the cockpit where Ciro was bouncing between machines and read-outs, “we’ll need him. But he’s busy at the moment.”
“Ciro!”
“Yes, Miss Reyer?”
“I need another one of you.”
Ciro grinned. “Don’t we all?”
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
When they arrived at the planet, finding a place to land was as difficult for them as it had been for Ivan Rurik. They finally located a small plateau, rising out of the surrounding swamp, which was big enough for them to land on. The ship sank slightly into the soft surface, but at least it wasn’t sucked down into some unknown goo.
Ciro was speaking to Vas while Reyer stared out the viewport at the sun rising through the canopy of short trees.
“This isn’t an exploration ship, so we weren’t able to do a full fly-by and get the readings—”
“I know, Ciro,” his brother said.
“But what I’m getting from general readings is that this is a standard M-class planet. Oxygen and gases are within the right bounds for supporting human life. The temperature, especially in this region, is mild. You won’t need a suit for anything except keeping your pants from getting soaked. As for life forms—”
Something like a bird flew by their window. Everyone watched until its long red tail disappeared into the foliage.
“I can confirm there’s life,” Ciro said.
“There’s lots of it,” Reyer said. She was between the two of them, standing on the middle step. “There are things that live in the trees and things that live in the water. There are huge beasts—beautiful predators.” She didn’t seem to be aware that both of them were watching her. She only stared at the view. “And all the plants are tinted blue.”
No one spoke.
“It is beautiful,” she said. She turned away and went down the steps to the main deck.
“Could Lynx handle it out there?” Vas asked his brother.
Ciro scoffed. “Not on your life. Not even to save—well…maybe to save your life. But only because I like you. He would sink to his knees or deeper in that muck. And that’s if there’s something like land down there. Adan, there’s a reason we didn’t care about this planet. It may be nice to look at, but it’ll be hell to get around in.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“The Supremacy wants it for something. I want to know what.”
From behind them, Reyer said, “I recommend at least an e-pistol and that lovely sword of yours, Captain. And if you don’t mind, I’ll bring a machete. From what Rurik said about the predators, I’d rather have something bigger than my knife.”
Vas stood up and walked down to her. “I’m sorry, Miss Reyer? You think you’re going?”
She smiled. “I know I’m going, Captain.”
“My mission is to protect you.”
“You also said that you wouldn’t let me out of your sight.”
Vas could feel Ciro’s eyes on him and was glad his brother couldn’t see his blush. “You’re deliberately misunderstanding me again. You’ll be much safer on this ship.”
“That’s probably true. However, you shouldn’t go out alone, I don’t know how to handle a ship, while Ciro does, and Lynx can’t go out because of his weight. You’re running out of options.”
“And if I told you that I would go out alone?”
“That’s fine.”
Vas nodded. “Because you’d go out on your own too. Of course.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I could order you to stay.”
“You could. It wouldn’t do you much good. I’m not a soldier anymore.”
Vas sighed and looked over at Lynx, who was standing nearby.
“I cannot find any fault in her reasoning, Captain,” the bot said.
“I didn’t ask you to.” Vas grabbed his sword from the corner.
“It looked as though you were seeking assistance, sir.”
“I knew you’d take her side. You always do.”
“She’s usually more logical than you, Captain. And less impulsive—”
“Lynx—”
“Shutting up now, sir.”
When Vas had on his wrap and selection of weapons, he went over to where Reyer was waiting by the ramp. He reached out and pushed the button. As the ramp lowered, he said, “I’m glad you’ll be coming. I appreciate you acting as backup.”
“You’re welcome,” Reyer said.
“It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I’m glad you’ll be coming.”
They weren’t two steps down on the planet before both of them adjusted their wraps to cover their noses. The smell wasn’t disgusting, but it was powerful—rank, wet earth and plants living on the corpses of other plants. They walked to the edge of the tiny plateau.
Vas had Reyer hold his XM4 as he eased himself down the incline. Despite his caution, he slid the last three feet, coating an entire leg in nearly black mud. He stood up on what had to be called “ground” for lack of a more accurate term. The muck went almost to the top of his combat boots.
“What’s it like?” Reyer asked.
“It’s like walking on a silty beach with the foulest looking ocean you can imagine. You said that there were predators in the water?”
Reyer tossed him the e-rifle and braced herself to slide down sideways. When she was beside him, she said, “I don’t think so. There are things living in the water, but the only predators he mentioned were too big to be hidden by this.”
“Oh, good. That’s comforting. Forget small and harmless—I want to be able to see them coming.” Vas handed her the portable scanner.
She lifted her feet once or twice. “Pleasant. Very squishy.” She looked up at Vas. “Can we go to a planet with a really good laundry after this?”
Vas smiled. “Not your idea of heaven, Miss Reyer?”
“I miss Huegeh.” When she noticed his glance, she clarified: “P48.”
“You liked your home there?”
She took a while to answer. “Very much.”
“You were awfully quick to blow it up.”
“I didn’t think I’d be around to miss it.”
Vas showed her how to handle the scanner and explained what to do if it detected anything they might want to investigate. Their original flyover had revealed no human presence. There were no buildings, nor any other human constructs. Lynx had exhausted his systems and taxed the Golondrina’s computers trying to figure out why the Supremacy would be so interested in it, but he couldn’t find anything useful from the air. They didn’t have the resources to do a full-planet sweep, but Vas hoped what little they could do might reveal something.
He tested each step before trusting his whole weight to it. Reyer followed close behind him. After a while, he realized that where the water was still, he could almost always step without problem. Where tiny eddies and currents gently moved the water, whatever he was standing on would give way to nothing more than thick water or very thin mud.
Wherever they went, the creatures fell silent, but outside of their range of influence, there was a cacophony of distant noises. The ambient commotion of life surrounded them. When a part of it stopped, Vas froze. He held his arm back, motioning for Reyer to wait. She lowered the scanner and pulled out her e-pistol.
Ahead of them, in a tangle of trees, something at least three times larger than Vas stalked. The distance made it hard to tell if it was fur or some kind of thin quills that covered its body. It silently lifted its massive feet out of the muck and skimmed it forward to take its next step. Its face was long and pointed. It hadn’t noticed them because it was too intent on the bird it had decided would be breakfast.
When it pounced, it was almost noiseless, but then there was the snap of its jaws around the bird and the splash when it landed back in the water.
Vas motioned with his head. He and Reyer left the scene as circumspectly as possible.
When they were far enough away the background noise had resumed, Vas said, “I don’t suppose Rurik told you if he’d been attacked while he was exploring?”
“He didn’t say. And I think he would have mentioned it.”
“Let’s hope that nothing around here is curious or hungry.”
They were out for another hour before something was curious enough to come investigate them. When it first jumped on Reyer, she almost panicked. She thought of herself as brave, but she’d never done planetary exploration, and it was funny how those who did never talked about the scores of completely harmless animals they came across.
This creature was barely smaller than a cat. It looked like an amphibian, but its legs were under it, more like a four-legged mammal. Reyer knew terms like mammal or amphibian might not even apply to animals on an alien planet, but those were the concepts she knew. Its skin was slick and porous, but it leapt with ease and clung like a gecko.
Vas heard her gasp. When he whirled around, he saw it caught on her arm, its small round face staring up into her wide eyes.
“Alix?” he said.
“Is it poisonous?” she breathed.
“How would I know?”
A long tongue with a bulbous end slapped out to lick one of its massive eyeballs.
Vas tried not to laugh. His body shook with the effort.
“This isn’t funny!” she hissed.
“No, it’s adorable.”
It started to crawl up her arm toward her face. Leaning away from it didn’t help.
Vas sloshed the two steps back to get close to her. The creature, whatever it was, was staring at him now too.
“Come on,” he whispered to it, “you’re scaring her. Time to get off.” He offered it his own arm, but the creature decided it’d had enough of them. It leaped to the top of Vas’s head, then immediately leaped onto the branch of a nearby tree. It paused to look at them, then rocketed to another tree’s trunk. It bounced a few more times, from tree to tree, until it was just above the murk of the swamp. With one hand on the trunk, it used the other to skim the top of the water, taking handfuls of dead insects and eating them.
“There.” Reyer pointed to something shining in the water.
At first, Vas couldn’t see what she was talking about, but when it moved through the shadow of the tree, it became more obvious. A slick of something silver moved over the surface of the water. It had no form or solid shape. It was nothing but a white-silver color that shouldn’t have been able to move that way.
It was moving toward their new acquaintance. Vas and Reyer watched with mute fascination.
When it touched the creature’s hand, the creature tried to yank it away, but the viscous thing clung to it and was lifted out of the water. The creature yapped out high, throaty chirps of agitation.
Vas felt Reyer grab onto the back of his jacket. He knew exactly how she felt.
The white-silver ooze continued to crawl up its arm. When it reached the head, it poured itself into the creature through the mouth, nose, and eyes. The crying noises stopped. The creature hung limp from the trunk of the tree.
Vas was about to recommend they move on when the creature twitched. As the ooze came pouring out again, they both unconsciously backed away from it. It looked larger, and more dense and syrupy.
Reyer whispered without knowing why. “That thing did something—it ate that other thing? From the inside?”
Vas shook his head with his mouth half open. “I have no idea what we just saw,” he turned around, “but I think we should take a wide berth around it.”
“I agree.”
Unfortunately, the terrain wouldn’t cooperate. They were forced to go much closer to the corpse than either of them would have liked. As they passed, Reyer found herself unable to look away. The jumping creature was obviously dead. It dangled from the tree by its one arm and foot. The other arm swayed lifelessly, its toe brushing the water. Under it was the mass of white-silver. By then it had taken on a lumpy form. Reyer put a hand over her mouth when she saw the skeleton inside. Her eyes flew back up to the body above it, but it was still solid enough, its bones must have been intact.
She looked at Vas. Judging from his expression, he’d also noticed the skeleton in the goo.
“Come on,” Vas whispered, motioning with his XM4. When they were further on, he said, “Please watch the water for me. I trust your eyes, and I have to keep a lookout for any large predators. If we see another one of those white things, we’re leaving. The Supremacy can have the damn planet.”
“Yeah,” Reyer said. “It was a little creepy.”
“I don’t think creepy is a creepy enough word.”
They came to a rise where the land pulled out of the water, the same as it had on the landing plateau. It was soft and spongy under their feet, but at least they weren’t walking through water. They followed the narrow path of relatively dry ground as it curved around to the left. Each step was a climb that raised them further above the swamp. The trees bent out and away from the ridge, preferring to loom over water. Vas thought he saw a glimmer down in the recess.
He handed Reyer the XM4. “Cover me.”
She let the scanner rest on its strap and hefted the weapon.
Vas chose his place carefully, finding a tree with a thick trunk that leaned out over the murk. The tree’s roots were thicker than a man’s thigh. He thought he could trust his weight to it. He did a controlled slide down the natural embankment until his boots hit the tree. There was a soft noise, but the tree didn’t even shiver from the added weight. He motioned for Reyer to toss him the gun, then she joined him.
They could have gone two abreast along the trunk, but both felt safer moving single file. They crawled out over the swamp. Without warning, Vas halted and stared down between the spread of branches. Reyer followed his gaze.
She stared in shock, then crawled forward to where Vas had stopped. She shifted around the larger branches, moving out to the side, until they were able to look down together.
Below them, sitting in the dark water of the swamp, a silvery-white lake was cradled up against the ridge. It was at least twenty-five yards across. As they watched the lazy swirling of the translucent, marbled substance, a bit broke away from the lake and followed an inconspicuous tributary deeper into the swamp.
“Miss Reyer,” Vas said, “I have seen all I care to see. Are you ready to leave?”
“Yes, Captain. Absolutely.”
Vas led them back along the tree and up the embankment. When he reached the top of the ridge, he leaned back to help Reyer. He saw the pained expression on her face as she pulled herself up.
“Do you need a break?” he asked.
She nodded and collapsed onto the ridge. Vas sat behind her so they could lean on each other.
She said, “Between pulling my feet out of the muck and the crawling, I think I’ve given my back more of a workout than it was ready for.”
“You could have stayed on the ship,” Vas taunted.
Reyer shook her head. “Not really. Neither Ciro nor I would have let you go alone. I may not be in peak physical condition—”
“But I know you can shoot.”
Reyer used water from her canteen to chase down a dose of medicine. “And a wise man knows what matters, Captain.” She smiled.
As they were walking back along the ridge, Reyer caught sight of a movement off to their side. She barely had time to register what it was before it pounced. She ran forward and shoved Vas as hard as she could. He went sprawling and started to slide down the ridge, away from the silvery-white lake. The massive creature that had been aiming for him knocked Reyer aside. She smashed into the soft turf and started to slide, but her panicked clutching found a tangled root.
She didn’t know what would happen if she fell into that pearl lake, but she was certain she did not want to find out.
Vas and the creature scrambled toward the top of the ridge. The captain had a shorter run, but he was forced to leap and grab at branches and roots. The predator had the advantage of huge claws it was able to curl into the slick earth. Vas made it to the top only moments before the beast. While he jumped to grab Reyer and drag her back up, the beast shook its body and tried to regain a sense of balance.
When Vas and Reyer were both back on somewhat solid ground, the captain stood in front of Reyer and pulled his sword.
“The rifle?” she asked.
“The swamp ate it,” Vas said.
He felt Reyer’s hand on his shoulder, pressing him down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her extending the e-pistol.
The beast was in front of them, watching them. It hissed before coming at them.
Reyer took the shot and hit one of its advancing paws. As it stumbled, she shot again and again. It tumbled and fell down into the swamp. Blood wept out into the already dark water. The beast wasn’t dead. It’s snout and shoulder had been decimated, along with its paw, but it was too large to be immediately killed by the three blasts. It was doomed to bleed out from its wounds. Reyer limped out from around Vas and raised her arm again, hoping that a well-placed shot might put it out of its misery, but Vas forced her hand down.
He took her by the shoulder and pulled her back toward a tree. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, he nodded to the dying beast. Something had been drawn by the smell of the blood in the water. It was enormous—twice as large as what had attacked them. The scavenger’s face was wide and ugly, with a huge nose that seemed to be made of three cavernous nostrils. It had fangs longer than a man’s hand. When Reyer saw it approaching, she flattened herself against Vas. Tucked among the branches, they watched, hoping it wouldn’t notice them.
As the scavenger lowered its head to sniff at the predator, the dying creature unexpectedly lunged. Its intact front paw seemed to change as it slammed down onto the larger creature’s skull. The scavenger struggled for a few seconds, then stopped. The two beasts lay together in the swamp, the ripples in the water settling around them—one dying, the other as still as death.
The eyes of the dying predator clouded over, milky white, bulged out of their sockets, and ran down what was left of its cheek. The eerie liquid continued to pour out of the sockets long after it should have stopped. A pile of white goo lay between the bodies, larger than the beast it came from.
The skeleton was visible only a few seconds later.
By the time Vas had pulled his com out of his pocket, the form had taken shape.
Reyer watched, stunned, her chest cold and hollow, as only a minute later a new beast stood up in the swamp. It had a wide flat face, a huge nose with three cavernous nostrils, and fangs larger than a man’s hand. It was indistinguishable from the scavenger still lying in the swamp.
The two humans, still tucked against the alien tree, waited until it left before doing anything. Then the captain paged the ship.
“Get us out of here, Lynx.”
The robot’s voice came from the com: “Understood, Captain. We have locked onto the com’s signal and will be there shortly. If possible, please get to a convenient spot.”
“We’re not moving.”
“Captain, you may have to.”
“Hurry!”