Jungle colony book 2, p.109
Jungle (Colony Book 2), page 109
His hud flashed, updating his ammo counter with the amount reported by the Rezzer Botha had given him. Two shells. Well, at least she got something loaded, he thought as he took two quick steps toward the door and fired at the cluster of hoppers grouping behind it. The shot echoed through the room, and a moment later he was ducking back as the second, unwounded beast leaped toward the door, smashing into the desk and—thankfully—shoving it and the door back slightly.
Sound is all it has left, Jake thought as he backed away from the flailing creature, his free hand slipping several more shells into the Rezzer’s feed. And with the roar of the skimmer outside the window … it can’t hear the softer ones.
Such as the rush of Botha’s footsteps as she threw herself from the window with a scream, landing against the side of the skimmer in a splay of limbs that likely would have led to a fatal fall had Anna not caught her wrist with one hand and pulled her up. Jake moved back toward the window as the creature by the desk turned, moving toward the only part of the room that it hadn’t yet explored—Jake’s.
“Jake, come on!” Anna called. “Let’s get out of—Shit!”
Jake spun, his heart leaping in his chest as the skimmer pitched to one side, ducking away from a spray of fire from the ground and away from the side of the tower. The vehicle had been hit—Jake could see multiple spines protruding from the underside—but at the moment it didn’t seem that anything vital had taken damage.
“We need to go!” Anna shouted as more fire shot past, the skimmer dancing under her hands. “Now!”
He glanced at the office behind him. The creature was still getting closer, and hoppers were moving around the lip of the door. There was no more room to back up, no space to get a better running start. He was out of time. He shifted his weight, threw the Rezzer to the side, sprinted forward … and jumped.
For a brief second he seemed to hang in the air as he arced out of the window, his feet treading empty air in the wake of his jump, and then he began to fall, his stomach rising into his chest as the distance to the ground seemed to stretch and swell before him—only to be cut off by the arrival of the skimmer, both its engines and its passenger screaming as it collided with him in mid-air. His fingers caught hold of something, bringing both the collision and his fall to a sudden, jerking halt, and then he was pulling himself up onto the rear rack of the skimmer, straining not to be pulled away as the engines roared and sent the vehicle rocketing away from the tower.
“Climb aboard fast,” Anna said, as he pulled himself into the cargo seating next to Botha and began strapping himself in. “We need to get back quickly.” The skimmer began to climb upwards, toward one of the openings in the canopy.
“Why?” Botha asked as Jake began strapping himself in. “The data?”
“No,” Anna said, shaking her head as the skimmer picked up speed, engines whining. “We’ve got a surge.”
“What?”
“A surge!” Anna said, one hand tapping the blocky comm system atop her helmet. “We need to get back and make sure—Hang on!”
The skimmer jerked to the side, standing on its edge as the engines let out a tortured scream. A series of rapid, tapping impacts rattled the skimmer’s underside, and as they righted once more Jake spotted several of the elongated, long-legged creatures they’d seen around the base of the tower hanging from the underside of the canopy.
Slingers, he realized as he saw the strange ring of orifices around the creature’s front end. They’re living guns! As he watched, one of the bodies contorted, a pulse of something moving down its body beneath the skin, and a moment later Anna threw the skimmer into a steep climb as another barrage of spikes hummed past them.
That wet cracking noise, Jake thought, hanging on to the cargo rack with both fingers as the skimmer rolled again. Botha’s helmet slammed against his shoulder, and the zoologist let out a terrified cry. That’s a louder version of the creatures in the tower. Some sort of … gas propellant?
Then, with a rush of wind that buffeted the small skimmer, they shot free of the canopy and out into a clear, bright sky, the jungle left at last behind them. Jake pivoted in his seat, scanning the nearby leaves for any sign of the strange, long-legged attackers, but saw nothing.
“Jake?” Anna asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “I don’t see anything. Botha?” There was no reply? “Botha?”
A wet gurgle caught his ears as he turned, the zoologist’s body falling limply against his shoulder, her eyes wide and staring as she looked up at him. Her mouth was opening and closing in short, panicky jerks, but no sound was reaching his ears. Wordlessly, he pulled his hand away from her back and saw the blood on his gloves. Her body began to twitch, and he pulled her up off of his arm to see the back ends of three spikes that had punched into her lower back in a staggered line. None had fully entered her suit, and already the gaps had been sealed by a foam coagulant, but it was clear from the moan of pain that made its way over the comms as he lowered her back down what had happened.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked before he could speak, taking a quick glance back at him. “Mierda.”
“She’s been hit,” Jake said, shaking his head as Botha stared up at him. Her face was losing color, taking on an ashen pallor that was a shock next her normally dark skin. “She’s going into shock. I can’t—I—”
“Monitor her vitals,” Anna said, her voice utterly calm. “There should be a way to link her suit with yours so you can keep an eye on them. Botha, if you can hear me, we’re heading back to the hab as fast as we can. Just hang on, focus on the sound of my voice. Can you do that Botha?” Jake looked down as Botha gave him a faint but perceptible nod.
“She nodded,” he said as he carefully brought his arm back out from beneath her back and began tapping the controls on his wrist, searching for the setting Anna had mentioned.
“Good,” Anna said. “Just keep focusing on my voice, all right. The skimmer’s fast, and we’ll be back at the hab in no time, all right? Dr. Kombes is a great doctor, and she’ll be able to take care of those wounds just fine. I just need you to listen to what I say, and keep calm. Don’t panic. Just stay calm.” Jake’s hud flashed, bringing up Botha’s vitals as Anna continued to speak, and he tried to keep his face neutral.
All three are in her lower back, judging from this, he thought. Elevated heart rate, elevated breathing … but slowing.
He didn’t know if that was good or bad.
“Just focus on my voice,” Anna said as the skimmer swept on, climbing back over the mountains and heading for the hab. “We’re almost there, okay? Just focus on my voice. You’re going to make it, okay?”
“You’re going to make it.”
Chapter 32
Anna watched through the glass as Dr. Kombes continued her examination of Botha’s back. At least, she assumed that was what the doctor was doing at the moment. Botha herself was out of sight, quarantined inside a medical cocoon that was monitoring her every heartbeat while tending to her with a selection of robotic arms guided by the doctor’s control. She would remain inside the device until Kombes was satisfied that there was nothing alien contaminating her systems that could pose a threat to the rest of the team.
The team, Anna thought, her fists clenched at her sides. The team that was sent to die.
She was sure of it now. Any lingering doubts that had been in her mind at the onset of their expedition to Livingstone had been chased away around the same time they’d found the security team dead in the room that held the archives, as well as said archives scrambled.
UNSEC—no, Eidre—sent us here to die. The thought raged inside her mind like a caged animal, begging to be set free. All of us. Political dissidents, free thinkers … and two loose cannons with far too much in their heads that UNSEC needed to keep hidden. Her fists tightened, the fingers rolling forward and back, kneading her palms. They sent us all to die, and maybe, just maybe learn something about this horrid place before we went.
Kombes adjusted something once more, tapping at the medical cocoon’s hard-light controls and peering down at Botha. The zoologist had been strong, holding out for nearly the entirety of the trip back before devolving into terrified moans and cries, then going silent. Kombes had already determined the source of her agony, as well as her unconsciousness—a thin channel along the flattened edge of each spike had delivered a small dose of some kind of venom, one that had sapped Botha’s strength and possibly put her into a hallucinogenic state before she’d entered unconsciousness.
Another toxin that works on humans, Anna thought as she watched the woman work. Far too well.
The whole planet was rotten, she was sure of it. Everything that had happened seemed to point in— Well … it’s crazy, she thought. But it really is like this place is actually out to get us. Specifically.
Death planet, she thought, her mind flashing to one of the serials she’d seen on the net when she’d been younger, about a group of free colonists who’d broken away from the UN to settle a planet only to fall victim to its dangers and hazards without UNSEC’s support, the survivors eventually retreating back to the welcoming arms of a united humanity. As far as Aesops went it had been fairly blunt with its leanings, but one of the criticisms she’d remembered making of the show was how easily everything on the planet’s surface had suddenly proven capable at killing, harming, or eating humans.
Which hadn’t really been fair to the show’s creators. After all, the point the story had been going for was how much mankind needed the UN with all its vast capabilities. But much of what had happened to the colonists had been far too coincidental, an obvious element to drive home the moral of the show. And yet …
Death planet, Anna thought, rolling her fingers once more. Everything here seems to act with one accord, with one purpose … to kill us. Crud, even the plants … Her mind slid back to the branches that had “somehow” come free of the canopy and been blown right into the fencing during the prior night’s storm.
And now the surge that won’t stop, she thought. Was it something we triggered by approaching the remains of the city? Or was it just always going to happen?
“Anna?”
She jerked, her head snapping to the side as Commander Ikeda stepped back, a shocked look on her face.
“I—” Anna shook her head. “Sorry, commander. I didn’t … I didn’t hear you.”
“No …” Ikeda replied, a look of concern on her face. “It’s all right. You looked fairly caught up in your thoughts. Concerned about Botha?”
“And everything else,” Anna said as her eyes slid back to watching the doctor. “Living guns, commander. Living. Guns.”
“I saw the footage you captured with your helmet-cam,” Ikeda said, stepping up alongside the glass. “I mean, I would have believed you either way, but …” One of her hands, Anna noticed, was playing the tail end of her blond braid, wrapping it around her fingers and then letting it slip out as she pulled her hair tight. “There’s just … You think you’ve seen everything strange, and then …” Her words trailed off, and she let out a sigh.
“In any case, I’ve called a meeting,” Ikeda continued. “Our two halves … we both need to see what you brought back, and then combine that with what Wells and Lankiss found after you left.”
“They haven’t seen it yet?” Anna asked.
“Haven’t you?”
Was it her imagination or was there fear in the commander’s eyes? A faint chill crawled down her spine. “I haven’t,” she said. “We barely had time to copy it and escape with our lives, and then it was just a file in my suit’s data banks.” Not that they’d needed it; the ripper had survived the trip with both it and the found storage drive intact. “You have?”
She nodded. “The final entries, at least. And …” A highly visible shudder rolled down her body, her hand clutching at her braid like it was a lifeline, and she took a deep breath. “Five minutes. Conference room. Everyone will be there. We all need to see it, and then to combine what’s there with what Wells and Lankiss have discovered. Once we’re all on the same page …” Her body shook again, and she swallowed.
“We need to decide what we’re going to do.” She turned and walked away without further comment, leaving behind a feeling of dread so intense it almost seemed to darken the bright lights.
That’s not good, Anna thought as her eyes slid back to Kombes, who was stepping away from the machine now, a visible sigh of relief on her face. The doctor stepped over to an attending station and splashed a handful of water across her face before heading for the exit, apparently too tired to change out of her medical scrubs.
“Doctor,” Anna said as the door opened, Kombes stepping into the hall. “How is she?”
“I—” Kombes paused, then visibly deflated. “I can’t say for sure,” she said quietly. “It’s nothing you did—her injuries weren’t even that severe; they missed the spine, and only one grazed an organ. But that toxin …” She pulled herself up. “I’ve filled her system with medical nanites to cut it off, but the damage it did was extensive.”
“Fast?”
“No,” Kombes replied, her head slowly shaking. “And that’s the strange thing. It could have been, but it wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
The doctor sighed. “Here,” she said, motioning down the arm of the hab toward the hub. “Kaori messaged me about the meeting, and I’d like to eat a little something beforehand. Walk with me.” She began to move down the arm, and Anna fell into step beside her.
“This toxin,” Kombes said. “It wasn’t fast acting.”
“You mentioned that.”
“But I didn’t explain myself. I’d need time to study it further, but what little the computers could tell me from Botha’s body was that it’s a potent material. It breaks down the bonds between cells, turning the biological matter it touches into jelly. But not quickly.”
“No?”
“No,” Kombes said, shaking her head. “Slowly. Over a matter of hours, which is still quite quick, but even so, it could be far quicker.”
“So …” Anna thought for a moment as the common area neared. “You’re saying its meant to kill slowly.”
The doctor nodded. “I honestly believe so. It would be almost impossible to produce a concoction such as this without stumbling across its far more deadly variants, and none of them would add any significant difficulty to the creation of the toxin itself. No, for it to take this much time to do its work on something’s body, it would have to be a choice.” They stepped into the common area, and Anna took a seat, giving Kombes a moment to rummage through the pantry and come out with a meal bar.
“And then there’s the hallucinogen,” she said as she sat down opposite Anna and pulled the wrapper from the bar with a faint crinkle. “A mild one, but a hallucinogen all the same. One that would induce paranoia atop light hallucinations and distortions of reality.”
“Again, not as strong as it should be,” Anna guessed.
“Yes,” Kombes said. “Just enough to cause a gradual effect, but not enough to induce any severe reactions in the recipient.”
“So it’s a social weapon,” Anna said.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s not designed to kill its target,” Anna said. “Or rather, if the spike doesn’t kill the target, the toxins will … but they also put the target into shock and coax the mind to panic. Not for the one hit, but for anyone around them.”
“That sounds …” Kombes’ face scrunched up. “Doesn’t UNSEC use something like that?”
Anna nodded. “Pacification chemicals. A gas that causes people to panic and see things. Excellent for breaking up riots and other subversive actions by getting the crowd to turn on itself.”
Kombes nodded as she took a bite, but then frowned. “Now why would some sort of creature here want to inspire a similar effect?” She let out a mirthless laugh. “Want to. I’m ascribing malice to some sort of terrifying evolution, but at the same time … How could it even affect non-native life like ours?”
“That … I don’t know,” Anna said, scowling. “Not yet. Something spooked the commander about the files we brought back.”
“She’s been spooked all day,” Kombes said. “Ever since Lankiss told her something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve been monitoring Morel. I assume we’ll find out at the meeting.”
“That’s …” Anna shook her head. “Was she as rattled as she was a little while ago before we returned?”
“I don’t know,” Kombes said. “I haven’t seen her.”
“She was playing with the end of her braid.”
“She was doing that earlier. Before you returned.”
“So whatever Lankiss told her was really bad,” Anna said.
“I don’t want to make presumptions …” Kombes said, straightening momentarily, but then she shook her head and slouched. “But yes, I’m assuming it is.”
“Wonderful.”
“Have you seen your partner?”
“Jake?” Anna shook her head. “He went to make sure the skimmer hadn’t taken any damage we didn’t see on the way back. Not a bad idea—those … slingers … They spiked the underside pretty bad. Jake even found a scrape on his side from a near miss he didn’t notice. I’m sure he’ll be at the meeting.”
“Will he be all right?” Kombes asked, looking Anna in the eyes.
“Jake?” She almost pulled back. “Of course he will be.”
“Are you sure? I know I don’t know you two closely—but I know that you’re a soldier, while he is not. Is he going to be able to handle everything that happened today?”
At that, Anna had to smile slightly. “You’d be surprised, doctor. Jake is … Well, he’s a lot tougher than you would think. I’ve seen him do things most people wouldn’t dare attempt because no one else was available that could. He’s not inhuman—hell, Pisces even left me with some nightmares—but he’s not soft. He’s tough … but flexible. And I don’t think this is the first time he’s seen someone almost die on his watch.”
