Charalee
A gurgle in front of her let Charalee know that one of the lura had found her. She swore under her breath, more out of frustration than anything else. The power problem on Prospero was real, and the fact that night was rolling on meant that she had limited time to fix it. The engineer she'd cornered soon after leaving her dear sister some hours before had explained the situation, albeit in a stuttering, almost incoherent matter. Still, Charalee had reviewed the information enough to understand why the Compound had yet to get its power restored. Another gurgle pulled her out of her ruminations. While the lura was a problem, she wasn't too concerned. She'd killed a couple of them so far, and though they were tough--and smelly--she didn't have to worry about what they could do to her. The skin-sheath alone was protection enough from their teeth and claws. The problem was that others tended to become afraid whenever they showed up. She didn't appreciate them complicating her problems. The lura snuffled closer, its nose close to the ground. This one's shape was different than the others--in fact, they were all distinct--with a long snout, rimmed with glistening teeth. Two sets of eyes sat atop the boney head, with knobby crests protecting the delicate organs. It walked on its hind legs, with a tail that looked more like a collection of writhing whips than a proper tail. Small arms poked out of the front of its body, the ends of which were an array of three sharp claws. They wiggled as it sniffed, its nostrils on the far end of its snout making a loud suction noise. Charalee curled her lip up in disgust. Inwardly, she wondered how Doctor Trapp could want to investigate the animals. They were revolting, covered in a slimy skin that shimmered in the poor lighting of the connecting hallway that--she'd hoped--would lead her to the Energy wing. Not for the first time did she regret not taking Nolan up on the offer of joining the Compound's network. The lura paused, a long tongue--it would have to be, to go the length of such a snout--flicked out and began to lap up a puddle it had found. Charalee wasn't sure about its contents, but the animal was busy. And, seeing as how its head alone was more than a meter long, she didn't feel particularly curious about getting up close to the end where it consumed its diet. If it wanted to slurp up some toxic chemicals, that wasn't really her concern. Shifting lightly on her feet, she worked her way toward the creature. It had come from the direction she was trying to go, so if she could get past it, that would be best. And despite the fact she wasn't worried about being eaten by a Dentolura, she didn't see the harm in being cautious. No reason to make it worse than it already was. This connecting hallway was packed full of cables and wires, dim lights scarcely lighting the way--which she had her aedee adjust for her, so that hardly mattered--and alcoves, cubbies, and turn offs at almost every six meters. Or so it felt like, at least. The point was, she kept thinking she'd be in the right place at the next turn, only to realize that she was completely wrong. She was tired of making these miscalculations. Getting the power put back so that she could power up the Portal was all that she worried about, and the rest of this trivia could get out of her way. Gritting her teeth, she eased onward, her helmet in one hand, her back pressed against the service tunnel's cable-coated wall. For its part, the lura contented itself with the puddle. Its eyes were facing forward in their sockets, which gave her confidence. So long as it remained focused on the fluid, she would be happy. That wasn't asking too much, was it? Rounding the corner, she kept up the steady, slow pace, not wanting to turn her back on the creature yet. Methodical steps, keeping the wall behind her…it would all turn out okay, she was certain. Her helmet caught on a protruding brace that stuck out from the wall. It wasn't even a caught, it was more of a snag, but the end result was the same: The helmet slipped free from her grasp. The sound of it crashing to the ground echoed painfully in the narrow corridor. Her ears rang with the echoes of it. The lura leaped and spun around, its lengthy jaws wide and menacing. The gurgle, which sounded like an unplugged drain that was still too full of water and waste that it couldn't manage the trick of doing its job, dropped into a lower octave. Charalee swallowed, recognizing the ominous threat despite having had almost no exposure to the lura. She tensed. The aedee sensed her response, noted the increase in adrenaline, the change in surface temperature, and recognized that she was in a dangerous situation. It augmented her senses, a handy trick when one had to fight free of a monster's jaws. The lura leaped forward, moving faster than Charalee expected, its multi-headed tail writhing behind it while its snout split both vertically and horizontally. The long tongue, freed of its boney prison, whirled toward her. Sharp spines ran its length, dripping with a yellowish ichor. Out of reflex rather than training, Charalee flung herself to the right. She crashed into the wall--the corridor was so narrow that she could touch both walls simply by stretching out her arms--but dodged the attack. The tongue snapped back into the lura's face, its jaws clamping together. Pushing free of the wall, Charalee bent down and scooped up the helmet, moving to put it on her head when the tongue pierced it. With a jerk so powerful her shoulders ached trying to stop it, the lura pulled the helmet free of her hands. Charalee yelped in surprises at the speed with which the lura had resumed the attack, and was grateful that the helmet had stopped her from getting her head lanced. The lura's jaws began crushing the helmet, but, to its surprise--and Charalee's relieved amusement--the headgear didn't bend. Holding onto the helmet with its tongue, the lura began to thrash and writhe its body--its tendril-tail doing the same, striking out loudly and harshly against the pipes and the wall of the hallway--as it tried to destroy the thing that it had sucked into its mouth. "Have fun with the ball, bitch," said Charalee, feeling snide, if a little shaken. The helmet was of the same material that Desert Peaks outfitted its soldiers. There wasn't a thing that naturally occurred that could break that armor. It protected the wearer from solar radiation, atmospheric catastrophe, and could even be submerged several kilometers under water. While not quite as durable as her skin-sheath, it was still powerful armor. She turned away, heading toward the exit at a brisk pace. It was a nuisance that she lost her helmet, but it could be replaced. And, besides, that was one less thing to clutter her hands. She didn't like wearing the helmet, so… An ear shattering pop made her spin around. Some ten meters away, the lura stood, its jaws closed, its gullet bouncing, and an angry look in its four eyes. Pieces of shattered helmet littered the ground at the lura's feet. "Well, shit," she said, and turned, sprinting down the tunnel. Behind her, she could hear the sounds of pursuit as the lura began scampering after her. The clawed feet clattered horrendously against the concrete floor, filling her ears as her lungs tried to fill themselves with more and more air. Her aedee took over some of the regulation of oxygen in her body--a new feature that she'd upgraded right before this trip, though it had been more out of impulse than planning--which gave her a stronger push. Powering her legs as fast as she could, Charalee propelled herself toward the exit. Her brown hair whipped behind her. The feeling of her blood thundering through her temples, the coppery taste in the back of her throat, and the imagined image of her own head being in the four-angled jaws of a lura, cracking open much easier than it had that helmet all warred for attention in her mind. She pushed it all free and focused only on running, letting her skin-sheath lend strength to her muscles. The sound of the lura increased. A heavy weight slammed into her, knocking her flat and driving the air from her chest. The creature bounced off, landing and rolling a few meters forward while she skidded on the ground. Groaning, she levered herself onto her hands and knees. The gurgle drew her attention. The lura had regained its feet and now bent low, its jaws clacking together in a staccato rhythm that reminded her of fingernails tapped on plastic. Its gurgle deepened, a wet, ominous sound. Without warning, it burst forward, its claws scrabbling against the cement. That was enough warning for her. Her heart hammering in her chest, Charalee threw herself to the left, crashing against the door as the creature sailed past, its four-segmented mouth wide. The teeth glinted in the poor lighting, and for a moment Charalee felt as though she could count each one. Scrambling against the door as the lura thumped with a furious grunt three meters away, she slapped the jamb, desperate to get her feet under her. The panel beeped--she didn't have access. The door was locked. A numb disbelief swelled within her. This was it. She was going to die in this hallway, and no one would even know it. Torn to pieces and unlamented, Charalee had not expected death to come to her this way. That made her angry. Dying this way was not what she had in mind. If nothing else, survival was the most important thing. The idea of being ripped apart and sucked down that narrow gullet, or crushed by those intimidating jaws, seemed almost insulting. She wasn't even a colonist! She didn't live here, she didn't have any reason to be on Prospero, save it was her job. Her job had killed her. That made her furious. Not only that, but the stupid door wasn't opening because she hadn't bothered downloading a protocol. That she'd been trying to preserve her aedee from any gross detritus picked up from using the Compound's network was the very thing that led to her death struck her as perverse. That made her lethal. Rage coursing through her, she balled her hands into fists and leaped out. The lura, as she'd guessed, hadn't thought that the cornered prey would attack. Surprising the damn thing was a highlight of an otherwise miserable day, and there was a gush of excitement and thrill that coursed through her as she landed on top of the lura's back. Acting quickly but without forethought, she reached around the thing's thick neck, wrapping her elbow around its throat and locking her right hand in place with her left arm. The lura writhed beneath her, and she felt the whips of the tail arch over and rake her back. The skin-sheath did what it was designed to do: It protected her from attack. Hardening into an almost steel-like consistency, the skin-sheath's back surface absorbed the energy from the tail while also protecting her front from the thrusts of what she guessed were retractable spikes that came out of the mouth-like holes in its side. A grim smile crept over her face. Something was going to die right now, but she now doubted it would be her. The lura lurched about, trying to dislodge her as she increased pressure. It was a guess, yes, but Charalee staked her attack on the idea that, like terran animals, there was blood and oxygen--or whatever it was the thing breathed--that circulated through the creature's system. And if it had a brain close to its eyes, like terran animals, then that meant she was making the lura choke. Its movements became more enfeebled while still maintaining its frantic maneuvers. Charalee had her feet on the ground, now, and was able to add her weight to the back of the lura's skull, pushing it down harder while tightening the head-lock with her arms. A longer appendage from the tail slashed down, cutting her scalp from the top to just behind her ear. The pain spiked through her, and she unwittingly let go. The lura scampered free, its claws raking the cement, and ran away. The color of the creature had faded to an almost white, the brown-and-green hue of its skin nearly impossible to see now. A moment after it was released, the lura had left. Charalee stood slowly, her head pounding and her throat raw. It was only now, with the danger gone, that she understood that she'd been screaming at the lura the entire time she'd attacked it. Touching the wound on her head, she winced. It was long, but not particularly deep. Still, the pain was not insignificant. It also wasn't something that she would worry about right now. Arms leaden, she stumbled back to the door. The fight had taken more out of her than she'd expected, though certainly a part of that was lack of food. Breaking atmo wasn't a pleasant experience, and she'd found that piercing a planet's envelope worked better while fasting. As a result, she hadn't much strength left. Still, that wouldn't be enough to stop her. She needed to live, she had to survive. That was all that mattered. Thumping the unresponsive door, she mustered a weak shout. The likelihood that someone was on the opposite side of the portal gave her the energy she needed, but the hope was dwindling. Sounds drifted in from the other side of the door. The words were indistinct, but insistent. Pushing past the exhaustion her body had wrapped itself in, the thudded against the door. She stood only because it took too much effort to sit; when the door dilated, she slumped through and fell into surprised arms. "Good lord," said a voice that she didn't recognize. "Look at all that blood!" "Is she still alive?" asked another. "We're pulling all survivors together, that's what we do," said a voice with a ragged edge of authority. Charalee couldn't see anyone's face, which made her curious and surprised and sleepy. More words blurred together, but it soon became easier to let her eyelids close. Holding them up was a massive effort that she didn't want to deal with. Why deal with anything? Why survive? It was only more pain. She slipped into blackness. Ann
Shooting an angry glance at Lyle Odenheim, Ann said, "I thought you made the Janus protocol transparent." Lyle swallowed. A thin man with a thin moustache tracing his upper lip, his eyes bulged constantly. Coupled with the halo of hair that always seemed to float about his head, it gave him the appearance of a person who was in a perpetual state of surprise. This impression only became worse when he swallowed, his slender neck bobbing above the collar of his coveralls. "Uh…" "He cut off. Right after saying that they were going to catch more 'things' later." Ann had learned how to glower from her mother; she used the skill well. "This isn't why I contacted you." "Look," said Lyle, shifting from foot to foot, his nerves obviously frayed. He kept licking his lips and glancing at the door. Ann could guess that he wanted to get to the Hangar--she'd been lucky to have caught him before he'd heeded the evacuation call. And there had been blood--there was blood everywhere, it seemed--on their hasty trip to his workstation, where Ann sat now. He was still shaken by that. "Look," he said again. "I did the best I could. You told me--earlier today, as I seem to recall--that Janus was a no. Now it's a yes. I didn't have time to run everything I wanted to on the program." Ann felt dirty. Biting her lip, she considered her words carefully. "I don't like what this is. Were we not in an emergency situation, I would never have done this." "It's not unethical, if that's what you're worried about," said Lyle, putting his hand out to reassure her. "The concept has been thoroughly vetted by a consortium of private army CEOs and some of their ethicists." "That doesn't really assure me of anything," said Ann, standing up. "And that's beside the point. I don't want this protocol in our system. Once this situation is tidied up, I want your work expunged from the Compound's mainframe." Lyle licked his lips. "Chief Timpson, I beg you…" She pointed at the aedee-pad on his workstation. "I only need one more thing from you." "What?" he asked, sounding defeated. "I need you to find me the coordinates of Korryn, the woman that he was talking to." "I can do that," said Lyle. His attitude was sycophantic mixed with pride, which made for a most unpleasant combination to Ann's mind. "No problem." He wiggled his fingers in a pattern that was both too fast for her to recognize and too unfamiliar to remember. A moment later, he held out his hand. Ann touched his palm, allowing her aedee to download the information via a tactile transfer. "This will keep a bead on her until you tell Janus to stop. I've given you access to control that, as needed." Lyle looked morose. "But, please. Don't get rid of it until you've at least talked to me." Ann stared at him, her expression a cold blankness that she knew was more discomfiting than neutral. "I'll think about it." "Okay." Lyle nodded, his throat bobbing. "Okay. Thanks." "I'm going to make sure that you're escorted safely to the Hangar," she said, gesturing at the door. The workstation was one of many of the engineers who worked in the same space. Their terminals dotted the room, making it a less-than-straight path to the exit. Still, Lyle knew what she was doing. He headed in the right direction, pausing once as if to ask a question, then changing his mind. When the door dilated, one of her crew was there, waiting for him. "Come with me, sir," said the officer, but whatever else she said was lost as Bertram Callaway slid past the two and into the room. "Bert," said Ann, somewhat surprised to see him. His skin-sheath was noticeable beneath his security coveralls, and he carried an aedee-rifle with him. The weapon was considered to be safer than any other designed by the PAs, but Ann thought the possibility of having a corporate entity be in control--even tangentially--of the weapon that was supposed to save her life was a possibility too large to agree with. While having a safety lock that only contact with one's aedee made sense in a theoretical way, the practical application of it was that Ann had to trust in the goodness of Desert Peaks to let her use her weapons. That didn't sit well with her. Bert, though, disagreed. They'd gone more than one round--both in drink and in conversation--about the topic. "Chief," he said, adjusting the gun that also sat on his hip. "You wanted someone?" Ann tried to recall. There had been a lot of orders, a lot of things to remember and keep moving. At last, it came to her. "Yes, yes. I wasn't expecting you, Bert." "I was close by." "How's the evacuation going?" "We've had some problem spots, but we're moving along pretty well. The major thoroughfares are all broken into, so the system has sealed them shut." He grimaced, shaking a lock of his dreadlocked hair from his piercing brown eyes. "It is what it is, but it has made it harder to get anyone anywhere." Shrugging, he added, "I hope to finish up in the next couple of hours. Barring any unforeseen circumstances." Ann tweaked an eyebrow. "Yeah, barring those." He chuckled, but she couldn't sense any humor. "There are some casualties--we're looking at about nineteen deaths that we know of, plus twice that in injuries. Some are minor. Sprained ankles and wrists, a few bruises from panics. But we're still getting reports. The energy problem has put comms down in certain sectors--we're still trying to figure that part out." "Keep it up." "Thank you. How are you holding up?" Ann sighed. She'd expected this question, but it didn't make it any easier to answer. "I'm hanging in there. I don't have the luxury of feeling bruised, tired, or old." "Well, don't burn yourself out. We need you." She gestured at him. "You've been running pretty well without too much oversight from me or Captain Rall." Bert shrugged. "You designed the procedures that we follow. If there are any changes to it, I'll let you know." Ann nodded. "Excellent. Thank you." "Yes, sir." Bert turned to go. "Hey, wait." He faced her again, his large arms unconsciously flexing as he adjusted his aedee-rifle on his shoulder. "I need you to do something for me. Can you assign someone to watch over the Brig?" He arched an eyebrow. "At a time like this, sir, we need every hand to help." "I know. Pick someone green, anxious to prove herself." Then she shook her head. "No, never mind. Pick someone that you can spare for whatever reason. I'd…I would feel better knowing that there's a guard down there." "Why?" "I don't trust Senton." "Doctor Trapp?" Bertram frowned. "He's in the Brig?" "Long story. Point is, I need someone watching." "I'll get someone there as soon as possible. Anything else?" Ann shook her head, returned his salute, and sank into the chair. Having had Lyle here and finally compromising on the Janus protocol made it difficult for her to think clearly. She'd long resisted the power that the Janus protocol meant she could take, and, to be honest with herself, she'd expected more benefit for having sacrificed her good judgment. Still, she could keep track of Korryn with the access Lyle had given her. So maybe some good would come through? Out of curiosity, she turned on the viz-player with her aedee, letting it project its three-dimensional version of her workstation. The new file glowed softly, letting her know that she had yet to access it. She reached out, then hesitated. Maybe it wasn't too late to walk back from a mistake? But was it a mistake? Not being able to take care of these rogue elements--and how quickly she'd come to think of the small conspiracy between Korryn and Senton as "rogue elements" when the best she had was an understanding that they wanted to do something with the baby Dentolura--was dangerous. There were lives being lost because of Senton, so was it a sense of justice? She didn't want an emergency to prevent her from enforcing the laws of Prospero and those from the greater whole of humanity? Or was that petty? She'd used the idea of emergency to justify the way that she was behaving with regard to Janus. What other exceptions could she make? The ideas rattled around inside her head, distracting her and making the omni-present headache that much worse. What she wouldn't do for a bit of Calm--not a lot, of course, but enough to take the edge off. Sighing, she pushed past the frustration and tapped the icon on the viz-player. Immediately, the display showed a map--a poor one that lacked detail, in Ann's estimation--of the Compound. There were two glowing icons, both labeled. One was for the doctor. Still in the Brig, not moving around at all, of course. The other was for Korryn, who was, to Ann's surprise, headed toward--at best guess--the Laboratory wing. Frowning, she leaned in, squinting at the spot on the display. Her aedee zoomed in automatically, but there wasn't any more detail to understand. The program was showing the positions of the two people's aedees. That was it. Waving away the display, Ann leaned back. She needed to get out there. She needed to help the rest of the colonists who were in danger. It was not the time to slip. But there was so much banging about in her mind. From the attack to the different creatures to the fact that her sister was here to the downer from the Calm, all of it seemed too much. The last thing she needed to do was slip into a buzz, to take a hit that would impair her judgment. Frustrated, she slapped the top of Lyle's desk. The force of the blow caused something in the drawer to rattle. Surprised at the sound, she peeked into the man's desk. There, tucked into a corner, likely freed from her blow, was a small, familiar package. Calm. She could use this Calm, saving the one in her pocket for another time. That felt like a good enough reason to not fret about the high. She had an opportunity here that she couldn't--or maybe even shouldn't--waste. Reaching in, she snagged the container. It was smaller than what she was used to, and the label on the outside a different color. Unsure what that could mean, she hesitated. But the pressure--the need--resurfaced. She held the container to her face. A flick of the finger, and she'd calm down. She'd Calm down. She hesitated, but only for a moment. Finger moving, she triggered the release. The package popped open, Calm misted her nose and mouth, and the drug acted immediately, sending her away, clearing her mind of what she'd done. Outside, in the hallway, she heard screams. Korryn
The allure of potential money had faded throughout the past hours. Korryn had taken a wrong turn somewhere--though why they had to make the Compound so confusing in the first place, she didn't know--and her aedee's navigational system wasn't working correctly. It kept trying to take her back to the Laboratory wing and use that to connect to Gateway Avenue. That didn't work, as there were sealed off portions and plenty of Dentolura throughout the hallways there. And though she knew she should be trying to gather more lura in order to take them back to a spacestation, she now worried that maybe the plan wasn't as well-thought out as she had hoped. Walking down an abandoned hallway, the sky outside palely lit by the sprinkle of foreign stars, Korryn took stock of what she had in her favor. Five syringes of enough tranquilizer that, Senton had assured her, would be enough to bring down almost any lura she came across. A scalpel she'd palmed from the lab before she left. Her aedee, which was misbehaving. A death wish, apparently. She shook her head. Regret roiled inside of her, fueled mostly by her own desperation. The money couldn't be that good, could it? Besides, she'd been "hunting" these things since she'd left Senton's company, and though she'd seen a couple, both were far too large for her to do anything to them. Even if the tranqs worked the way Senton promised, those creatures were too big for her to haul toward the Hangar. She needed a better way. Of course, the danger of coming toward the creatures, not knowing what they were about, made her hesitant, too. Self-preservation was a stronger motivation than the potential profits and she wasn't ashamed to admit that. Still…she didn't want to go through this crisis empty handed. There had to be a way to capture a lura without risking her life to do it. She just had to figure it out. The hallway connected with another, a larger one that ran east to west. At least, she thought it ran that way. Everyone she'd passed had been going the opposite way, and now that she'd gone some minutes without seeing anyone, she didn't know what to do. Querying her aedee again, it told her to turn around and head to the Laboratory wing. Screaming through gritted teeth, she slapped her hand against the glass that protected the hallway from the harsh atmosphere of Prospero. She snorted. What a stupid name. Prospero? No one prospered here. It was a new world, sure, but the riches it promised were far away. The original colonists would all be dead by the time the air was safe for humans to breathe. The miners extracting all of the precious minerals had to either pressurize the mines--a dangerous proposition under good circumstances--or work in atmo-suits. Drones were no good underground because of radio distortion…everything horrible about the planet was part of what she had to deal with. Yes, she spent most of her time in the kitchens or in the Recreation wing, but work and play in the same stilted environment? She could name a half dozen spacestations spiraling their way through the vastness of space that could promise that, and there was always some new thought or invention or drug to try out in the 'stations. Here? All the same. Always the same. All of the work, none of the prosperity. Korryn smacked the glass with her open hand again. What a waste. "You trying to break out?" asked a voice that had a tinge of amusement in it but mostly rippled with a condescension that Korryn didn't appreciate. She looked toward the owner of the voice, then grunted. "Oh. It's you." "Guilty," said Charalee as she strode up, her face framed by a mane of luxuriant hair. "But what about you?" "What about me?" "What are you guilty of?" Korryn flinched, but she was facing away from the Timpson sister, so she could safely assume the woman hadn't seen the reaction. "Nothing." "That's too bad," said Charalee in a way that made Korryn understand what the phrase "tsked" meant. "If you're going to be punished, you may as well have had the pleasure of at least having done the crime." Korryn almost let a flicker of a smile crease her face. She'd been known to think along those lines herself. "Life's strange that way," she said. "What are you doing here?" "I've been," said Charalee, a frustrated laugh that did little to put Korryn at ease seeping through her words, "trying to figure out how to get the power back on." "Isn't that someone else's job?" "I'm supposed to turn on the Portal as soon as the sun rises," said Charalee, her voice turning stern. "If the power isn't up and running when we get full sunlight, the Portal can't open. If it can't open, then my purpose for being here is a waste." "Prospero is good at that," said Korryn, returning to her contemplation of the land outside the glass hallway walls. Squinting, she could see more of the Dentolura prowling around a distant wing--she couldn't tell which one from where she was--but there didn't seem to be any close to them. "Being a waste?" "Yeah." "You found something," said Charalee. "Or, should I say, someone?" Korryn bristled. "You mean, Senton?" "The very same," said Charalee. She leaned against the terraglass and looked at Korryn with a knowing expression. "He and I dated, you know." Korryn swallowed noisily. What did this woman want from her? A confession of her love for the doctor? A recognition that she, Korryn, was picking up what Charalee had rejected? A confession that she didn't really know Senton very much, but couldn't deny that there was an attraction? The fact that Charalee spoke with such surety about what Korryn ought to know also rankled her. "No, he failed to mention that in the few moments we've spent together." "Few moments?" Charalee looked at her with an arched eyebrow. "I got a different vibe from him." She paused. "But I know him a lot better than you do. So you maybe missed the clues." "Yeah, maybe," she said, not willing to give anything to this Timpson woman. The fact that Charalee was trying to intimidate her into not liking Senton almost made her want to like the guy, if only to spite Charalee. "But, yeah, he's a pretty good guy. If you like scrawny, obsessive, know-it-all asses who think the idea of good sex is that he gets off." She shrugged. "To each their own, right?" "What are you trying to do, Charalee?" "I told you: Get the power back on." "And why are you talking to me about it? Shouldn't you be digging around for power cables to connect or something like that?" Charalee snorted. "It's more complicated than that. Figuring it all out has been a problem for me." "Well, I don't see why your problem needs to become mine." "You already have Senton," said Charalee in a thoughtful voice, "so I figure you've a good sense for that by now." Gritting her teeth, Korryn said, "I'm not fighting over a guy with you." "I don't want him." "Then why are you talking to me?" It was all she could do to keep from screaming the question. "I wanted to give you a heads up," said Charalee. "Female solidarity, or something like that." "Thanks, but I think I'll figure it out." Korryn turned to go, but Charalee called out after her, making her pause for a moment. "You'll be better off worrying only about yourself. He's not worth it, you know? There are more men like him than there are stars in the sky. Don't bother with a guy you found on a mud clod." "Thanks for the 'advice'," said Korryn, resuming her departure. "I'll keep that in mind." "You do that," said Charalee. Korryn clamped her teeth to keep a retort from slipping out. If Charalee had to have the last word, let her have it. At least that much Korryn could control. Stomping away in whatever direction she chose, Korryn stewed in her own thoughts. Did she care what Charalee said? The woman had spent most of her time talking about the man she'd left behind--as if Korryn cared about relationships right now. The thing that bothered her the most was that she had fallen into the conversation. She hadn't even wanted to talk about Senton, and she'd just wasted however many minutes chatting with Charalee. But there was something else that bothered her, and only through a hefty helping of honesty could she pin it down: She worried about what Charalee had said. In the past, she'd never talked to exes when she started seeing a guy. It complicated matters. But this had sort of fallen into her lap, and though she wasn't entirely confident of her feelings toward Senton, she had to admit that there was something. That he liked her was obvious, and she didn't find being around him that unpleasant. That he'd come along with her idea--bad though it was, she had to confess to herself--meant that maybe he was interested in pursuing the relationship. Then Charalee had to sow doubt in the fields of her mind. Charalee wasn't entirely wrong about the guy: He was a know-it-all who had a tendency to get obsessive and focused in on one thing at the exclusion of all else. But was that so bad? It made him a good scientist… Shoving the thoughts away, she decided to stop thinking about him. This wasn't the time, and more than that, she didn't need to worry about these things at this moment. She had more important tasks ahead of her. Surviving, for instance. And figuring out where she was, for another. Her temple warmed…a call was coming through. Frowning, Korryn glanced in the lower left of her peripheral vision. The aedee read the movement of her eyes and drew the caller's identity into sharp focus. Senton Trapp. Why was he calling? He'd been silent for hours and now he was trying to talk to her? With a flat taste in her mouth, she tapped her temple to accept the comm. "What?" she asked, her tone as irritated as she felt. "I don't have much time," he said, his voice hushed and tense. There was an undercurrent of pain--she could almost hear him wincing--that brought her attention fully to the conversation. "What's going on?" "I'm in the Brig!" "How…how did you call out, then?" she asked. Grudgingly--and why grudgingly, she had to ask herself--she felt an uptick in respect for the man's resourcefulness. "Not important. Get here. I need you to free me." For a moment, she thought of hanging up on him. But then Charalee's point about him being a know-it-all popped into her head. The man knew the Compound better than anyone--it was part of his obsessive personality--and if she wanted out, then maybe he would be the best chance for that. She bit her lip and looked around. "I haven't caught anything yet." "We'll do that later. Come get me free!" Korryn hesitated. "Oh, no," said Senton. Then the line went dead. Korryn sighed as her temple returned to its normal temperature. They must have caught his broadcast. She glanced around. How was she supposed to get anywhere, to say nothing of the Brig? Queuing up her aedee, she entered the request. Maybe he could help her. At least this way, it gave her something to do. Senton
Scrambling on his hands and knees, Senton lunged for Karl. The lura's tail tensed beneath his grip as Senton's heart thumped with excitement. He'd spent the last ten minutes trying to get the damn thing back, but it kept scooting away at the very last moment. Now, however, he had a good grip on its tail and there wasn't anything it could do-- Yelping, he pulled his hand back, his palm sizzling with pain. Karl ran away. Senton looked at his injured hand, grimacing as he saw blisters forming on the surface--right where his aedee's flesh-display showed up against his dark skin. They stung enough to make him grimace and grit his teeth. It was too painful to even open his fingers, to say nothing of interacting with his aedee. Karl's tail, wriggling as it tried to get a section of metal grating free, waved at Senton, a mocking flag, adding insult to his hand's injury. A flame of passion and fury washed through him, forcing him to forget the blisters for a brief moment. The damn thing needed to die. Just, die. Barbs, coming out of the miniature mouths on the outside of Karl's skin, slowly retracted as the lura continued its investigation. Senton stood up. The Life Support wing mostly consisted of maintenance paraphernalia, with pumps, fans, catwalks, walkways, and more viz-panels than were likely necessary. Like all of the Compound, it was evacuated, the machines running well without human supervision--for now. Karl scampered from the unmoving metal grate, its body tipping back and forth as it would poke at one potential exit after another. Having used its (until now, unknown) self-defense system on its stalker, Karl apparently thought that Senton wasn't about to come at him again. It ignored the human, sniffing the air and chirping mildly to itself. The smell of sewage began to fill the air. The smell was what pushed Senton out of his killing rage. The smell. That had been in the lab, and he'd noticed it getting stronger the closer he got to the lura. At first, he'd passed it off as simply the natural odor of the Dentolura. But now that he thought about it more, it was clear that Karl's pheromones were responsible for the stench. The baby was still calling for its parents. The idea that massive Dentolura succhi would be following him to the Life Support section made him queasy. He needed to pick up Karl--or kill it, either, at this point, would be fine--and get out of the area. Additionally, he needed to record his observations, as not only did he understand that there was something toxic--though, he desperately hoped, not lethal--that the Dentolura could excrete through hidden spines. His hand burned and prickled with every movement. Senton took a deep breath. He needed to prioritize, plan, prepare. He couldn't do that if he was too focused on the pain of the moment. Dropping into his cold, calculating mind, Senton considered things as rationally as he could. Through some miracle of luck, he'd managed to keep the collapsible containment unit. It could be opened with a quick message from his aedee, which would be difficult to do left-handed, but he'd be able to manage. Once that was open, he could lure the lura into his trap and get Karl back to his lab. There, he could finalize the download of all the information that he'd collected, meet up with Korryn, and add the baby to whatever collection she'd managed to gain. Assuming, of course, that she hadn't met with another succhi or something even worse. Swallowing against that possibility, Senton thought of sending a message to Korryn, but then decided against it. If they were caught, anything written between the two could be looked into and used as evidence. He wasn't keen on incriminating himself. No, it would be better to meet with her, as planned, in the Hangar. He had to get Karl first, though. That ended up being far easier than he had anticipated. His hand aching all the way up to his right shoulder, he knew he couldn't do anything to Karl with his body. He could hardly move faster than a shuffle, so chasing the stupid thing wasn't an option, either. So he decided to give Karl exactly what the lura wanted: An escape. Snagging a multi-purpose tool from a workstation, Senton set up his cage around the corner from the grate Karl had been investigating earlier. With some difficulty (and more than one loud profanity), Senton had the grate wide open. He set the opened containment unit in the shadowy maw of the ventilation shaft, then painfully set it to trigger at a snap from his fingers. Then he moved away. Karl approached a couple minutes later, the vast amount of air circulating up the metallic throat pulling it in like stupidity to the humanities. Senton smirked as Karl, cautious but curious, paused to sniff. It stood for a long moment, but, in the end, Karl took a step inside. Then another. Senton snapped his fingers. The trap sprang. Karl gurgled in surprise. Senton whooped, but then regretted it when he jarred his shoulder. Hissing, he stepped forward. "You're not going anywhere," he said, reaching into the shaft and pulling out the containment unit. It trembled, and Karl made more than one sickly noise from within it, but if Senton had to guess, he'd say that the fight had been knocked out of it. Karl was defeated, and Senton couldn't keep from smiling thinking about it. "I got you now." "Funny," said a voice behind him. Senton turned in surprise, then gasped as the movement reminded him that he was, by no means, capable of moving so quickly. "I was going to say the same thing." "Chief," he said, his voice sounding thin and guilty to his own ears. He swallowed and licked his lips. "I didn't expect…to see you here." "Because you threw me toward the open mouth of a huge, human-eating creature?" asked Ann, stepping out of the shadows cast by an overhang of pipes. The stench of the caught lura mingled with the smell of wet and grease that the Life Support wing always had. The odors combined and made Senton's already-uneasy stomach clench. He licked his lips and cast a glance at the closest exit. Ann was between him and it. "That was a mistake," he said, shifting slowly, trying to force Ann to move so that he could make a break for it. "I'm sorry about that." "You know," said Ann, not falling for the attempt. She knew that he had no weapon, nothing to fight him with. She had him. But that didn't mean that Senton would remain caught. "You know, finding you wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. I had to go through a number of different back-alleys to get here. Open up a lot of doors. Do a lot of thinking as I went." "Oh?" He didn't know where she was going with her conversation, and that worried him. "Yes. I realized," said Ann, her back straight, her expression blank, "that you're hiding something." "Oh?" He hated that he sounded…caught, as if he'd confessed simply by saying that one word. Grimacing as the pain in his arm faded into a cold numbness, he adjusted his grip on Karl's cage. The creature gurgled, then fell silent. "Yes. I think you know more about the Dentolura than you've let on. Your notes--research, observations, visuals--I want them all." She extended her hand, palm up, in the familiar sign of a person waiting to receive an aedee-to-aedee transfer. Taking a step toward him, her other hand tight on the unholstered weapon, she stared at him with an air of unmistakable authority. Senton stepped back, uncomfortable with her approach. "Y-you're crazy. I don't have anything that you could use. I mean, I have notes, of course. But it's all in my own code, my own cypher…" "How long do you want to be in the brig, Doctor Trapp?" The idea of incarceration stoked a fire of indignation in his mind. "You think you'll lock me up? That you'll charge me like a petty criminal? Send me with Draymond Rall out into the depths of space on that pathetic tub filled with crooks and murderers?" He let loose a laugh that, even to his ears, sounded forced and shrill. "No, I don't think so." "There are two ways this ends, Doctor," said Ann, walking closer. "You die or you go to prison. Which do you prefer?" "Wait," he said, licking his lips and looking around for an escape. Maybe if his arm wasn't useless, he'd be able to figure something out--punch her, maybe, though he'd never done a lot of physical exercises throughout his life, so he didn't know how he could do that without hurting himself--but as it stood, he had Karl and his brain. His brain. He could think his way out of this if he just had time to think. "You have three seconds," said Ann, leveling her gun at him. "Wait," he said, closing his eyes and seeking the calm of contemplation, the cold world of rationality and reason that had helped him so often in the past. "One." The path to freedom was clogged, yes, but clogs needed only a push to break through, an incentive to move along. "Two." If he could get to a position where he could move something along--but what?--then he'd be able to… Ann shot him in the leg. Senton screamed and dropped the cage which, in the one stroke of good luck that night, didn't break open. Karl gurgled his displeasure, but it was half-hearted. The creature was not in good condition, Senton realized in a detached part of his mind. The majority of his mind was echoing his voice, screaming that he'd been shot. "You…you shot me!" "Yes," said Ann. "I thought you were going to count to three!" "Three," she said. Gasping, he looked at his leg, expecting a fountain of his blood to be ejecting from the hole. His jaw dropped, and for a moment, the surprise overpowered the pain. The leg was intact--not even his pantleg was torn. He looked up at Ann, who looked like she was waiting for this moment. "What, did you think I was going to maim you?" She snorted. "There are plenty of settings on a Security crewmember's weapon, Doctor, including non-lethal ones." "It's a trick?" he said. He put pressure on it, but his leg screamed in protest--a cry which he, unwillingly, repeated. He collapsed to the ground. "After a manner of speaking. It's more of a command override I put into your aedee by virtue of shooting you with the program." She wiggled the weapon, then slid it into its holster. "You miserable little b--" Ann grabbed Senton by the lapel of his coveralls, the action causing a spasm of pain to ripple down his right arm and his left leg and cutting him off from whatever he was about to say. In a voice of cold calm, she said, "Let's go." "You…you can't," he said, his teeth clattering with the agony that lanced his body. "I can't move." "No worries. I'll carry you," said Ann, then matched action to her words. Senton found himself ignominiously draped over the Chief of Security's back as she holstered and secured her weapon and then scooped to pick up the dropped cage. For the briefest of moments, Senton was confused. He knew that Chief Timpson exercised enough to be good at her job, but she wasn't even winded with hefting him, and he weighed eighty kilos. Then he understood: She wore a skin-sheath, likely one similar to what her sister, Charalee, wore. Most people used skin-sheaths as a type of dermal armor, used to prevent small-arms fire or other projectiles. But some models had muscle enhancements. He knew she hadn't been wearing the sheath before, but now that he had the chance to consider it, she did seem a little bulkier. The skin-sheath wasn't ever too thick, but it gave a particular contour to the body. He was distracted; that was why he hadn't noticed. As he bounced, too in pain to mount a defense, he said, "So you think you've won?" Ann chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. "I have miles to go before I sleep." "Miles?" She shook her head, which Senton felt brushing against his side. It was difficult to breath with his guts on her shoulder, but he couldn't get himself in a more comfortable position. "Don't worry about that." She shifted him, which made it a bit easier to breath, though it jolted both of his injured limbs. "While we go, why don't you tell me all that I want to know about the Dentolura that are currently causing havoc in my Compound?" Despite his pretended conviction, he found that he was unable to keep his secrets safe while his body was in such pain. He thought that he could probably sue Ann for torture, but that would have to come later. For now, he answered her questions immediately, as any delay would cause "accidental" bumps. When they arrived in the brig--a secured section of the Security wing--Ann dropped him in a heap on the floor of one of the cells. "You should be comfortable here," she said. "And don't worry about trying to contact anyone. These cells are designed to dampen any aedee activity." Sighing, she held up the cage, looking into where Karl lay, looking sick. "I'm going to keep this fellow here until I can get it to its parents. Hope you don't mind." Setting Karl's cage in the cell across from Senton, Ann straightened. She held up her hand. "Thanks for the information, by the way. I appreciate your cooperation in this difficult time." "Yeah, don't mention it," said Senton. "You're sure that's everything?" He shrugged. "I guess." He paused. "If I think of anything, how can I contact you?" Ann hesitated. "Why?" He shrugged again, then winced as he straightened on the ground. "I'm in a lot of pain. I might have forgotten something." She regarded him for a long time, but he studiously considered his swollen hand, avoiding her gaze. "Fine," she said at last. "I'll set it up that your aedee can only talk to mine." Senton took care not to show a secret pleasure flash across his face. "That works," he said softly. He considered his leg. It was whole, of course, but it still ached like it'd been shot to pieces. "How long will this program run through my leg?" "I don't remember," said Ann. "Somewhere between an hour and a week." Giving him a jaunty salute, she said, "Call if you think of something." Then she walked out the door. "Oh, I will," he said, the smile he'd suppressed smearing across his face, filled with malice and rage and indignation. "You can count on that." Ann
The door slammed shut and the sound of the creature and people's screams drew her attention away from what Senton had done. Ann brushed off her confusion. She didn't need to waste time trying to understand Senton's behavior when there was a more pressing problem in front of her. Gathering herself, she flicked her fingers and activated a broadcast to her entire crew. "I need all available members to get to the Dormitory wing immediately," she said, her voice impressively calm. "We have a large creature killing people here." A chorus of understandings came through, though a couple begged permission to remain and help the wounded of other areas of attack. She allowed that, logging away the information. The entire Compound was under siege. She didn't know the full extent yet, but every time the Dentolura broke through an external wall, it triggered localized lockdowns. Some of the major arteries of the Compound were now clogged, cut off from the rest of the colony. Everyone was in a panic. Ann wished more than ever to take some Calm--or a stiff drink…anything to cut the tension--but she only had the one she'd snagged from her desk when she'd stopped by her office to-- The squat, broad creature that looked like an old-Earth alligator, except enormous and covered in spikes, let loose a terrifying hiss as it lunged for another victim. It was approximately ten dorm blocks away--far enough that Ann would have to run, and likely wouldn't arrive in time--so Ann did what came instinctively. She shot at it. The gun's projectile--a packet of condensed light--smashed against the lura's back, sending up a burst of steam, a shower of sparks, and an eruption of vibrant green blood that splattered against the wall. The person who was cowering in front of the creature's blood-dripped jaws looked up at her, surprise on his face. "Are you nuts?" he screamed. "Get out of the way, you idiot!" shouted Ann, leveling her gun. Taking a careful stance, with her feet directly beneath her shoulders, she let her aedee overlay her view of the distance, generating a target that let her know the greatest likelihood of where the packet would strike when she pulled the trigger. The would-be victim got up, scrambled toward a juncture, and threw himself out of the way as Ann squeezed the trigger. The lura, however, jerked to one side, letting the shot soar past it and explode in a flash of light and sparks at the far end of the hallway. Gritting her teeth, Ann silently commanded her aedee to patch into the localized public address system. "Everyone in the Dormitory wing, take shelter in the rooms or retreat to the second floor. Repeat, everyone must evacuate the dorms. Do not take any possessions with you; do not interact with the creature." She blinked away the comm-override and focused on another shot. This one struck the lura in the bow-legged right shoulder, blasting away a hearty chunk of meat and plenty of bone. Its hiss sounded enraged, and despite being unable to move its right leg, it began to gallop toward her. In the back of her mind, Ann was calculating the size and potential weight of a creature like that. She estimated that it clocked in at almost five metric tons. Her little hand blaster wasn't likely to do anything to that. She didn't stop firing anyway, carefully backing up as it got closer, pock-mark after bloody pock-mark erupting from its body as each super-charged packet smashed into it. Now it was ten meters away. Fire. Fire. Seven meters and closing. Fire. Fire. Five meters. Fire. Fire. Four meters. Its body tensed. Ann fired. Like an uncoiled spring, the lura leaped forward, its massive jaws splitting open vertically as well as horizontally. Sharp, conical teeth--layered with human blood and its alien saliva--glistened in the harsh emergency lights of the dorms. Ann fired a parting shot as she dived to her left. She flew an easy two and a half meters before landing on her side and rolling up into a shoot stance. The lura's head, complete with a crater where the back of its skull had been only a moment before, smashed against the door through which Senton had thrown her only a few minutes earlier. The stench of charred flesh and copper-coated sewage filled her nostrils and it took a concentrated effort not to gag. The body still twitched, and gaps in the creature's slimy skin, some as large as human mouths, opened and closed in spasmodic episodes for a full ten seconds after the rest of the body stopped convulsing. Ann approached cautiously, but it was clear the last shot had done the job, bursting through the Dentolura's head when it had unhinged its jaws. The shot, she was certain, would not have done anything otherwise. Her hands trembled as she tried to rein in the adrenaline that seared through her. She wanted to laugh and cry and she couldn't get her thoughts together. Maybe it she took a small hit--not a big one at all, not even half her normal dose--she could Calm down. The tiny pod was in her hand, pointed at her nose, when she realized what she was doing. Startled, she nearly dropped the drugs. Looking around to see if anyone was watching, she pocketed the Calm and turned to the door. It was destroyed. There was no way to get past it until they moved the lura, and that wasn't happening anytime soon. Ann drew in a steadying breath and commed her first lieutenant, Rander Jickson. She picked up immediately. "Yeah, boss?" "What's your status?" asked Ann, trying to steady herself still. "We evacuated the entire Cafeteria and Recreation wings. We're huddled up in the Hangar, awaiting further orders." "I need a sweep done." "Yes, sir." "I'm getting occasional reports about where everything is going wrong, but I need better intel." "What about the camera system?" "It's out. Drains too much power, I'd guess," she said. "Are there any engineers with you? Someone who could give us a status on the power situation?" "Um, I can check." "Do so. Then I want you to help that person--or persons--to get main power back online." "Okay." "Take one or two crew with you, then send the rest out to pick up stragglers or relieve points of attack. I'm entrusting this with you, Jickson." "Yes, sir." There was a pause, then she asked, "What are you doing, sir? Can I help you with that?" "No, I have to try to get out of the dorms." "What's wrong with the door?" "It's…" Ann glanced at the ruined creature that stuck out of the door like a monstrous doorstop. "It's out of order." "Understood." "I need to track down Senton Trapp. I think he's hiding something that could help us out." "I can't help there, sir. We're not allowed to track people's aedees that way." Ann gritted her teeth. "The Janus Protocol…" "What did you say, sir?" asked Rander. Shaking her head, Ann said, "Nothing. Give me an update as needed. I need to find this guy." "Good luck, sir." They disconnected and Ann turned around, startled to see a group of colonists gathering around the creature. They were all in different actions, but Ann recognized the most common ones: They were snapping memory photos, storing what they saw in their aedees for future retrieval. "Hey, you guys," said Ann, stepping toward them and raising one hand while resting the other on her holstered weapon. "We need you out, not gawking." "But…it's dead!" "And so are a lot of people," said Ann, casting a glance down the main hallway. Bloodstains dotted the floors, walls, and even the ceilings. "You all need to evacuate. Go back the way you came and get to the Hangar. That way, if needed, we can get you off Prospero." "Who are you?" asked one man, tall and beefy, wearing the telltale insignia of a miner on his lapel. "I'm the Chief of Security," said Ann, straightening up and glaring at the man. Despite the height difference of nearly a half meter, she had a better glare than anyone she knew. "You're leaving here. All of you. Now." Her tone had a blade's sharpness to every word. There was no arguing with the authority she exuded. A couple more people took mental snapshots and then turned around. "Move yourselves, people," said Ann, her stomach still flopping, as much from the fear of fighting down a charging lura as because she had more work to do. The crowd dispersed, albeit reluctantly. Ann didn't care. She had to figure out where Seton had gone to. Thinking back, she'd followed his gaze for the split second it took before he grabbed her and threw her into the path of a massive Dentolura. Had she been thinking clearly, she would have had her aedee recording what was happening, but the loss of Nolan and the residue of the different drugs had clouded her thinking. That caused a small squirt of frustration at herself, but she couldn't dwell on it. She'd have to face that demon another time. Instead, she rifled through her memories. What had she seen? Had it been the infant? Was it escaped again? That certainly would make sense. If Senton had lost the creature, he'd be frantic--desperate, even--to get it back. Desperate enough to throw her to the bigger specimens? She shrugged. It was possible. But why would he be heading northward? The only thing there was the… Life Support wing. If something happened in there--if one of the adults got into that area, searching for their infant--the entire Compound would be compromised. It wouldn't matter how quickly the Vanguard dispatched stargazers to help out. The entire colony would be dead in a matter of minutes. Recognizing the danger, Ann pulled up a display of the Compound and, tweaking the parameters of the path, told her aedee to guide her to the best path to the Life Support wing. She had an appointment with the good doctor that she didn't want to miss. Senton
Before Korryn and he split to finish their separate plans--he to try to follow Karl (his name for the baby), she to use some of the tranquilizers he'd furnished her with from the stock in his lab--Senton caught her by the arm. "Hey," he said, the yellow lighting of the room making the bloodstains dark and ominous and her beautiful face strangely hued, "I want to see you again." She nodded, giving him a slight look of confusion. "Of course." "No, I mean, I think…" He paused. "I don't know how to say this." Korryn shifted to another foot. "We're wasting time." "I know, I know." Senton drew in a deep breath. "I think I like you." "You think?" He shook his head. "No, I mean I do like you. I like you. A lot." Embarrassment swam over him, tickling his brain and distracting him with a flutter in his stomach. He could feel heat on his face, but he knew that his darker skin didn't show through when he blushed, so he could be thankful for that much grace. "I mean, I want us to, y'know…figure it out." "It?" "Us. Not just this little business venture and scientific exploration. I mean, us." Korryn leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You're cute." Turning away, she glanced up one direction, then the other. "I'll think about it," she said, throwing him an impish smile that turned his knees to water. Then she was gone, her butt well framed by her coveralls as she ran down the right-hand hall. "I'll take it," he said softly, one hand touching his cheek. A far away sound of crashing glass drew him back into the moment. The Dentolura were attacking, he knew that much. That was the only explanation for the loss of power. But were they actually getting inside? Was their plan going to work? He'd kind of doubted they'd be able to collect anything easily, particularly if there wasn't someone who opened it up. But that sound…what was that? Shaking his head to dismiss the worry, he scooped up the collapsed specimen cage he'd used when he'd gone out to first collect Karl. It was built of a lightweight polymer--stronger than most unalloyed metals, but an eighth the weight--and could fold into a small package, no larger than a couple of viz-players placed together. It clipped onto his belt. Shucking off his lab coat, Senton also added a bevy of tranqs to his belt. He didn't want to be unprepared. Stepping out of the lab, he went left, tracing the ventilation system in his mind as he walked. During his first couple of days at the Compound, he'd found that he'd get lost so easily that he had to constantly rely on his aedee's navigational protocols to get anywhere. While he didn't mind using the nav protocols necessarily, it was frustrating to be ignorant about anything. Unlike others, he didn't enjoy relying on the aedee. It was a tool, not a way of life. As a result, he'd spent his first weekend memorizing the layout of his new home. This served him well now, because the aedees were given different levels of access when it came to navigation. They would plot out the best path for the types of clearance the owner had, bypassing areas that were off limits or under construction or whatever change might be there. That meant that others didn't know the shortcuts and bypasses that he did. They weren't as likely to know, for example, that the ventilation system ran parallel but beneath the tunnels through the area of the Compound closer to the Laboratory wing, but then splayed out when they hit the Cafeteria wing and even more-so when they arrived at the Dormitory wing. There were manifold outflow areas, but they all received the cleaned, human-worthy air through a treatment on the opposite side of the Compound from where he was. In other words, the place where the smell of the outside was greatest was in the Life Support wing, and it was his best bet that Karl was trying to find clean air. Indeed, that was something that had surprised him. Humans couldn't breathe Prospero's atmosphere, and he'd been worried about what would happen to the infant when he had caught it that afternoon--had it only been this afternoon? So much had happened, it seemed, since then--and only the desperation of needing to get Karl inside before anyone noticed had forced him to take the risk. If worst case scenario had surfaced, Senton would have been able to assuage his loss by knowing he could dissect the creature and study its remains. But, to his surprise, and excitement, Karl had, after only a few minutes of obvious distress, adapted to the greater oxygen-content of the Compound. The little guy had regain his color soon after breathing normally, and within fifteen minutes, acted as though nothing were different. Though part of the scientist mind noted that this was alarming on a certain level, Senton ignored it. Rapid adaptation to atmospheric changes would be one of the greatest evolutionary benefits he could think of, and it explained why it appeared that the Dentolura had dominated so much of the ecological niche on Prospero. The creatures could inhabit habitats on the highest mountains, lowest valleys, areas of immense desert and humid rainforests. That flexibility was only one of the many reasons that he wanted to keep studying the creatures, and why it was so important that he kept playing Korryn along. Of course, he cared about her. He hadn't been lying, he told himself as he ran down the hallway. She was ambitious, that much was certain. He didn't appreciate the idea of "selling out" in order to do his science, but the appeal was too great. He needed to understand these creatures, and no cost was too high. That she had said he was cute had helped him to push back the feelings of betraying his discipline for cold hard cash. The fact that they'd already dated a couple of times before and had both enjoyed it made him think that maybe she was the right kind of person for him. After all, wouldn't that be an incredible future for them both? She, making the money they needed to live in comfort, freeing him up to pursue additional scientific discoveries? Though they weren't the first to discover extraterrestrial life (that had happened on a planet near the Sagittarius quadrant, a place with bacterial life) nor the first to discover complex life (that was on a moon orbiting a Goldilocks planet not too far from Betelgeuse), they would be the first to really study xenobiology in its manifest forms. Prospero was exciting because it gave that opportunity; capitalizing on it could be a way to fully explore that opportunity. His thoughts continued to bounce around, from his studies to the possibilities with Korryn to what it would be like if Korryn really did like him to perhaps what they might do together--or to each other--as he scurried toward a service passage that would shave a few minutes of wandering down main thoroughfares. The emergency lights cast everything in an ethereal hue, but he hardly noticed. Emerging from the connecting tunnel, he arrived at Desert Peaks Avenue--a large tunnel, sponsored by DP, of course--and turned left, heading northward. More than a few people passed him, and all those who did had a look of panic on their faces. One tried to stop him and tell him to go the opposite direction, but he ignored her and moved on with the most direct path to the Life Support area. To get there, he'd pass through the Dormitory wing, which was likely quite crowded. That could be problematic, but only if more thoughtful neighbors tried to stop him. Why were they all running away, anyway? It was only then, after overhearing someone, her voice frantic, shout at her children, that they needed to hurry because it was an emergency that he realized he'd missed something. So involved in his own thoughts, Senton had missed the arrival of a Compound-wide broadcast from Captain Rall. Queuing it into his audio receptors, he let the message play through his aedee as he wove through the ever-thickening crowd. "Citizens of Prospero," the message said, and Senton thought he could hear some strain in the man's voice, "this is Captain Rall. We are under attack by the xenoforms native to Prospero. For everyone's safety, please evacuate according to Procedure Six. Security guards will be stationed at every main juncture to help you get to the Hangar." Senton cursed. More people at the Hangar meant more witnesses! Rall was ruining his plan. "Do not return to your dorms. Take only your immediate possessions. For those with families, please await their arrival at the Hangar. We need the traffic to flow in only one direction. This evacuation is merely a precaution until the Security crew can secure the entire Compound." Senton looked around, grinding his teeth in frustration. There were more people than before, all of them flowing the opposite direction he needed to go. A few meters ahead of him, he saw a Security crewmember, waving her arms to direct the traffic. Most of the faces of the passing colonists were painted with panic, fear, or worry. A few, like him, were frustrated. One approached the Security guard and began arguing with her about how he needed to get past. Senton used the distraction to get himself further along without being spotted, but he needed to leave DP Ave as soon as possible. This was not good. Not only did it mean that the creatures really were inside, but it meant that more people were getting to see them. That probably would bother Korryn--he shook his head, cutting off the thought. How quickly he'd fallen into her way of thinking about the creatures and Korryn's point of view. No, he needed to focus on getting his specimens secured. That was all that mattered. A scream pulled him out of his thoughts. Behind him, perhaps a good twenty meters away, a Dentolura burst out of a side passage. This one looked quite different from Karl--instead of standing with its hips beneath it, this one's front legs were splayed outward. A large muzzle, filled with teeth on its jaws and bristling with spikes on its cranial helmet, snapped down on a fallen colonist. Senton's eyes widened in fear and surprise as the man's arm disappeared in a mist of blood, swallowed down the gullet of the sprawling lura. The crowd surged, turning around and pushing each other toward the Dormitory wing. Senton stumbled, but regained his feet and, with the dozens of people in the Desert Peaks Avenue, rushed away from the rampaging lura. As he turned away, he managed to catch a glimpse of it slashing out with its tail, a formidable weapon at least two meters long and covered with spikes, held out parallel to the ground. The person it connected with severed in two with the force of the attack. More people screamed. The smell of blood washed over him. Fear warred with curiosity. Yes, it was dangerous, but what an opportunity! He was saddened by the deaths, of course, but he'd never seen the creatures up close before. This particular species of Dentolura had been called Dentolura succhi, and the drones had noted that they tended toward the rivers and lakes nearby. Spotting them had been difficult, as they preferred to keep underwater and relied on ambush tactics to bring down prey. To see one in action--even when that action was in the midst of a crowd of people--was thrilling. He glanced back in time to see it pounce on one of the people in the back of the crowd, removing the woman's head with a savage snap. Maybe thrilling was the wrong word. Despite the press of people all sprinting in the same direction, Senton knew where he was. There was another service tunnel off to the left. If he could just get there through the press of people, he'd be able to avoid the mob and perhaps manage to get himself to the Dormitory wing without any more problems. The process of working his way over proved more troublesome than he expected, and by the time he'd arrived on the left side of the hallway, he'd passed the door by a good three meters. Pushing against the stream of bodies, he navigated to the entrance and palmed his aedee against the wall-mounted pad. The door dilated obediently, and he slipped in. As it constricted, he saw the Dentolura succhi approach, its mouth open and a malevolent hiss roiling from within its barrel-chest. Taking a deep breath, he hurried northward, following the appropriate pipes that showed him which turn to take if he wanted to get to the Dormitory. Of course, that particular lura was also headed toward the Dormitory. Still, if he could go faster than the mob, he'd get there, pass through, and be on his way to the Life Support wing before he had to worry about the creature. Despite the adrenaline, he found himself tired by the time he safely arrived at the Dormitory. Stepping out of the service tunnel, he paused to catch his breath. The lobby of the entrance was abandoned, but he could hear the sounds of the approaching mob. He'd accomplished this much, but he needed a break. He didn't exercise much, as a matter of course, and all this running was wearing him out. Off to one side, he saw a tray of food, abandoned, no doubt, when Captain Rall's announcement had come through the aedee network. He scooped up a roll and drank down the entire cup of cold tea, grimacing at the weedy taste. He'd never much cared for tea, being more of a coffee person. But coffee was harder to grow here on Prospero, which meant they had to import it-- The broad doors to the Dormitory wing's foyer began to open, and he could see people trying to scramble beneath it as it slowly raised. He didn't have any more time. Jogging, Senton entered the main hallway. The dorms were laid out like a massive grid, with multiple levels, all identical. Though the colonists could dress up the outside of their rooms as much as they liked, the overall feeling was one of uniformity and depressing unoriginality. Still, it meant that he could run in a straight line all the way to the far end of the Dormitory wing, where the access to Gateway Avenue would help get him to the Life Support wing. Behind him, screams began to come through the opening door. Glancing around, he saw that there were some people who were peeking their heads out from their dorm rooms. The thought of telling them to get to safety crossed his mind, but he didn't want to waste his breath. They'd probably be okay. He focused on running. The screams, the snapping of lura jaws, the deeply pitched hissing--all of it followed after him, a wave of sonic despair that helped propel him forward. After what seemed too long of running down the same colored hallway, he arrived at the far end. Palming open the door, he gasped and turned, watching the wave of people dispersing through the grid of dormitories. This was probably their best option, as it gave them multiple directions to go and plenty of areas to hide as the Dentolura succhi stomped after them. He turned to the door, then his eyes went wide. It was Ann. "Senton?" she said, her sweat-streaked face a picture of surprise. "What are you doing here?" Senton's eyes slid past her and, it seemed, time slowed. He saw Karl, wriggling free of a vent, heading toward the Gateway Avenue, which was surprisingly empty. In front of him, Ann was raising her hand, as if to grab him. Behind him, the Dentolura succhi growled, its jaws clamping down on another victim, whose screams cut off in a gurgle of blood. Without thinking, without knowing why, necessarily, he made the choice. He wanted Karl. Snagging Ann, he whirled her into the dorm where she tumbled to the ground with a yelp. He slapped the door's pad with his aedee and closed it behind him. Time to get his baby back. Ann
Heavy darkness spread in front of her. Involuntarily, Ann gasped, more out of surprise than fear. Still, everything had been illuminated, everything clear. Then it had, as simply as an aedee gesture, turned off. The lights flickered back on, but in a low-level setting, the same yellowish-hue of the flashing lights during the lockdown. "Emergency power," said Nolan, who had stopped in the middle of the hallway when the lights deactivated and now stood, glued to the same spot. "Those are our emergency lights." Ann fingered another increase on her aedee pain-relievers--they weren't the same as actual chemicals, but it helped tamp down some of the most adverse side-effects of the headache--and said, "I'm aware of that. What I don't understand is how we could have lost power." "Did you feel the Compound shake?" asked Nolan, his face a sickly color in the lights. Sweat shone on his forehead and glistened on his lip. Ann felt a twinge of pity for the poor man: He'd come to Prospero recommended by one of Ann's friends on the Vanguard, but he had--quite unexpectedly--been diagnosed with colon cancer. The aedee spotted it pretty fast, but the process of stopping the growth had led to other problems. Now his aedee couldn't interact with his physiology, leaving it as a communication and personal computer, but little else. Additionally, he had suffered from some personality changes because of the treatments, and his abilities of organization, recall, and management had all dwindled as well. She didn't blame him for being scared--she was scared herself, though she manifested that through anger and commitment to seeing things resolved--but it was becoming a problem. "Yes, Nolan," she said in answer to his question. "I did. And then the lights went out. Now they're back on. We need to prep security for these creatures, so let's not hang about in the halls and instead--" A finger-length wide net of cracks grew out of the smooth glass to her left, accompanied with a loud bang as something collided with it. Embarrassingly, she flinched at the sound, recoiling from the darkness beyond. The terraglass was strong--palladium-infused glass would bend before it broke--and it also cut down on the glare between darkness outside and illumination within. This proved a useful feature in stargazers and spacestations, as it allowed the people within to still look out at the vastness of space without the reflections of themselves being as prominent as with other glasses. Plus it held the polarization that allowed some of the more brilliant aspects of cosmic phenomena to appear in a spectrum of colors more easily viewed by human eyes. These same features meant that the Compound could see out into the brave new world of Prospero while the humans inside were still protected. A dark shape charged at the glass again, smashing into it with a deafening crack. Ann stumbled back. Nolan fell over. Like most of the connecting hallways of the Compound, this area that connected the Laboratory wing to the main thoroughfares was built out of terraglass formed tubes. Metal joints at the entrances and exits of each hallway had been installed to allow any one section the ability to seal itself off in the highly unlikely chance of a breach in the glass. As Ann watched the shape, stumbling a bit from the second blow step back, only to make ready for a third charge, her eyes went wide. The net of cracks broadened under the third strike, one major break spreading up to the center of the tunnel. "Nolan!" she said, running in the direction they had been heading. The exit was still a good hundred meters away, but if the system worked the way it was supposed to… He looked up at her as she ran, a paralysis of panic spreading over his face. "Get up, man! Run!" The order helped pull him out of his own terror enough that he scrambled to his feet and began to chase after her, his cheeks puffing in and out and his arms pumping wildly. Ann, eight meters ahead of him, faced front and put on as much speed as she could muster. Her heart thudded dully in her ribs and her mind felt tight with pain and panic. Each breath rasped more than she cared to admit, and she berated herself for having neglected her exercise lately. There'd been so much work, so many reports to file, so many comms to receive that she had always found an excuse to avoid rather than an excuse to do. She regretted it now. Checking over her shoulder, she could see that Nolan was losing ground. Sweat poured off his face. Dark stains beneath his arms grew on his coveralls. The spot between his legs had a similar appearance. Without judging, it was clear the man had wet his pants. "Come on, Nolan! You can do it!" She should keep her breath to herself, save it for running. But he needed encouragement, he needed help. "Come on!" That seemed to give him confidence and he sped up. Not much, but enough that Ann thought they might make it. Facing forward, she could see the metal mouth that would close if the tunnel actually broke-- The sound of the terraglass shattering filled the tunnel and made Ann's headache flare worse than before. The shrieking sound of the Compound's atmosphere rushing through the hole nearly deafened her, and she could feel the air she desperately needed pulled almost from her lungs as it fled. The concussive force needed to break through the glass rippled down the hallway, and she heard Nolan stumble. In front of her, the emergency seals began to constrict. They moved slowly to allow people time to go through, but they moved steadily. Being on emergency power hadn't turned off this crucial system; Ann had no time to wait. The dilemma popped into her mind immediately: Turn and help Nolan or escape and save herself. It wasn't a hard decision, even if she felt it was the wrong one. She sprinted harder, now only ten meters away. The door contracted, the four sides of the doors pulling closed. There was a gap in the center--a steadily closing gap--that she aimed for. "Ann! Please!" The shriek was so pitiable, so sad that she almost--almost--stopped. But she couldn't. The hole continued to close. The strength in her legs diminished. Like sunlight draining from the twilight, her energy flagged. Nolan screamed. Only a couple of meters now. The door contracted. Ann was close enough. Nolan screamed, the pitch of it bending higher into a key of terror. Ann dived, headfirst, through the closing aperture. Her left knee banged into the door, sending a burst of pain through her entire leg. Landing on her side, she slid a meter or so before scrambling back to peer through the door's sealing hole. Bathed in yellow light, she could discern what looked like a larger version of the specimen Senton had coddled, except more vicious and pointed. What were protuberances and buds on the infant were full-fledged spikes and horns on the adult. A cranium of keratin-coated bone topped a heavily muscled head, with jaws that split open widely, as much down the middle as from the jaws. An array of eyes peered out from beneath the boney crest, each looking at Nolan. The haunches rippled beneath a slimy skin, and the spike-encrusted tail swung from side to side as it approached her friend. The Dentolura lunged forward. Nolan screamed. The door slammed shut. Ann leaned against it, gasping, trying to come to grips with what she'd witnessed. The creature had broken through the terraglass and attacked her crewmate. The Compound had suffered a localized quake. They were running on emergency power. Swallowing, Ann tried to calm her pounding heart. This was not what she had been expecting of her evening. Sucking in as many thorough breaths as she could, Ann fingered a voicecomm to Captain Rall. This was out of her jurisdiction; she needed guidance. Rall responded almost immediately. "Timpson! What's going on?" "I don't know, sir," she said, still having difficulty breathing. "We found the infant specimen, but now we're under attack." "I know that," said Rall, a sneer of frustration in his voice. "We've lost power throughout the entire Compound. We're running on backup batteries. The outer fences are toppled, and we have atmospheric breaches reported in sixteen different areas." "Sixteen!" Continuing without having heard his Chief of Security, Rall said, "We have reports of severe casualties as colonists are being attacked in the darkness, knocked out into the atmosphere of Prospero without appropriate gear, and injuries relating to inexperienced dumbasses who fired on each other instead of whatever it is that's invading." "It's the Dentolura, sir. They're attacking the station." "What? Why?" "We have their baby, sir!" There was a pause, then, "Then give it the hell back!" "Yes, sir!" "We're sending everyone to the Hangar. It's the most defensible area, and we can also evacuate once help comes." Ann tightened her jaw. "Yes, sir." "Get as many people there as possible." "Yes, sir." "And find that baby. Get it back to them!" "Yes, sir." "Oh, and Ann?" She cleared her throat and worked her way to her feet. "Yes--" The metal door behind her bent inward with a deafening shriek. Ann stumbled away from it as the metal trembled. Another dent appeared, close to the first one. It was about the size of the head of the lura she'd seen attack Nolan. "Sir, I'm going to have to call you back," she said, disconnecting the aedee with a flick of her hand. Then she told her augmented device to help block the pain from her leg. She wasn't done running. Senton
Because of his earlier stomach upheaval, the flopping of his guts on seeing the large Dentolura break through the fence made his legs weak and his head cloudy. He could hardly stand the excitement. The Dentolura had noticed the broken wall and come through! That they wanted the baby was the most likely explanation, though without some testing he couldn't say for certain. Still, this bespoke not only that his pheromone hypothesis was correct, but that there was some sort of familial structure--or, at least, protracted concern for their young--that the larger lura relied upon. This made him almost faint with excitement. Looking around, he could only guess what the others were thinking, but based upon the intense frown on Chief Timpson's face, Ann wasn't very happy about the breach. Korryn had an expression of interest and thoughtfulness that Senton found alluring, while Nolan merely looked confused. The new Timpson, Charalee, was glaring at the distant arrival of the creatures as though they had personally insulted her by being there. Before he could speak, Ann gave her verdict. "We need to lock down." "Wait, you don't think they're here to hurt us, do you?" asked Senton, stepping in front of Ann and pulling her attention away from the creatures in the distance. "I think I don't know what they want, and I need the Compound secured as soon as I can." She flicked her hand, obviously commanding her aedee to do something. Her hand actions were different than what Senton used, so he could only guess what she intended. "Secure this area, Senton. You, too, Korryn." "Wait, what?" Ann shot her a look. "You're interested in this specimen, right? You had better make sure it stays put." "Why?" asked Senton, afraid of what Ann would say but anticipating it nonetheless. "You're not thinking of giving it back, are you?" "I am going to report this to the captain, prepare my crew for a repulsion of xenoforms that we don't understand, and--maybe--figure out what happened to the other person who was in that room. If those creatures are here for their baby, I want to know precisely where it is." "And what about me?" said Nolan. "I need you to prepare the delivery of the creature." "Um," he said, his face puckering in confusion. "How?" "We need to get this thing outside to where they are, but I don't want them to think that they simply found their darling. I want them to know that we returned it, that we didn't kill it." Senton made a rude sound in the back of his throat. "They don't think that way." Ann turned toward him, her face a mixture of disbelief and fury that Seton had never seen before. "What's wrong with my plans, Doctor?" Senton shrugged, then said, "We don't know enough about the creatures to be able to judge how they're going to react to seeing us with the baby. Maybe they'll think we took it and try to get revenge." Korryn sighed. "The point is, we don't know what is best here. So why don't we do what Chief Timpson said and we'll go from there?" Though Senton hated the idea of losing the little lura before he even had a chance to study it, he capitulated in the end. It wasn't worth the fight. "I'm going to check on the Portal," said Charalee. "That's why I'm here. Your little domestic problem isn't mine." Ann nodded. "The Compound appreciates you returning our specimen." Charalee smirked. "You're welcome, sister." Charalee sauntered away, which Senton took a moment to appreciate before returning to the matter at hand. "Take care of this thing. Make sure it doesn't go anywhere." "Can we at least move it to a room that doesn't have a corpse in it?" asked Korryn. "Fine. Update me on the location when it's settled," said Ann. "This is a big mess, Doctor, and I'm not happy that I have to clean it up. We aren't done, you and I." Senton swallowed. "Yes, Chief." Ann and Nolan headed down the opposite direction that Charalee took, both of them furiously wiggling their hands as they told their aedees what to do. Senton let out an angry breath and looked up at Korryn, who was watching through the window. "Can you believe it?" "Believe what?" she said, not turning to face him. "That they want to get rid of the specimen." Korryn shrugged. "That's okay." "What? You were the one who thought that we should do something with it. Right? To make a profit?" He stepped closer to her--not too much, he didn't want to be too forward--using a chance to glimpse out the window as a pretext to do so. "But there are more options." "Huh?" She pointed. Through the gloom, Senton could make out what seemed like an entire herd of Dentolura of almost every size and shape they'd documented pour through the breach. Senton felt his knees wobble again. "They're…they're massing toward us." Korryn glanced over, then smiled. "That's more for us." The comment demarrowed his concern. "You mean--" She nodded. "We can give them the baby, provided we snag some of these bigger creatures. That's a better move anyway--they're more likely to survive us taking them back to civilization if they're bigger." She paused. "Do you even know what they eat?" Senton shook his head, then gestured for her to follow her into the lab. The fact that a lot of potentially dangerous creatures were rushing across the empty fields that surrounded the expansive Compound didn't worry him over much. Not only was the Compound hermetically sealed against their atmosphere, but the terraglass that formed most of the tunnels was extruded in such a way that they could withstand thousands of pounds per square centimeter. They could prowl around the buildings all they wanted; they couldn't get in. Still, Ann's precaution was understandable. If the thing they wanted the most was the baby, then the humans needed to make sure they could get the baby into the hands--claws?--of the parents. That only made sense. "That is something that I've been working on," he said, tapping his temple. "I've a lot of research done, but much of it is guess work or hypotheses. I really want to spend some time with these creatures." "That's why you're doing what I'm saying we should do?" Senton paused, looking down at his hands. Centuries of scientific dogma had coalesced into the single greatest error in human history: The loss of their own planet. In the immediate aftermath of the loss of Earth, scientists were held responsible for such a mistake. But humanity needed the ingenuity and the advancements that only science and engineering could provide if they were to survive in the stars. Nevertheless, the purpose of science and discovery was still taught, albeit with a greater emphasis on considering the ramifications and impacts of what was being created. Senton always chaffed under that sort of thinking. Yes, losing the Earth and creating a postlapsarian migratory society was not the best thing that the sciences had done. But there was much good, too, that they had accomplished. Back before the regulations and societal disapproval of unfettered scientific exploration were enforced, scientists could explore the questions they found most intriguing. Confident in their knowledge that what they discovered would always, eventually, benefit Humanity, they were given free rein. Senton wanted that back. And the only way, he begrudgingly admitted, was through commercial enterprise. No, he didn't want to sell off the creatures, or put them in zoos, or anything other than study them. But if working with Korryn's plan to profit off the lura meant that he'd get to study them more? He'd have to bend to that rule of reality. Looking up, he said, "Yes. I'm with you." He raised a finger. "But we're going to have to be really careful. We'll need to tranquilize the creatures so that they don't send out pheromones, as well as keep them tightly contained." Korryn frowned, then brightened. "I know of a place. It's in the Hangar. Fresh food has to be carefully checked to ensure we don't get any nasties from a spacestation--the last thing we need is an outbreak of some disease that proliferates easier in our more confined environment. It's large and, if I remember correctly, we took out the latest cargo a day or two ago. There's plenty of space for us to keep any specimens we find." "Should we take this one there?" he asked, jerking his head toward the still-closed door of the lab. Korryn thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't want to stick around a dead body. Do you?" "Not really." He finally admitted to himself that he felt bad, and the idea that maybe someone had killed the poor guy and was now running loose in the Compound made him uncomfortable, but Ann would take care of that. He had other things to think about instead. "Let's transfer the little guy." Korryn laughed and threw him a smile that made his uneasy stomach tighten in excitement and hope. Their first couple of dates had been really enjoyable, and the idea that maybe they could turn it into something more was another tantalizing possibility. He tried hard to focus on the task at hand, but seeing her smile had sent his mind headed down…different paths. He palmed the door open, talking as it dilated. "Do you think we should name it, or…" He trailed off as he stared in mute dismay. Shattered terraglass sparkled over the ground, intermixing with the congealed blood. A large hole in the container gaped at them, the jagged edges of the broken glass looking like so many teeth. Senton took a deep breath. The box was empty. "How is that possible?" he asked, a fire of indignation at the injustice of it all burning through what should have been a flash of distress and panic. He looked around the room, casting about for some explanation--an intruder who'd snuck in while they weren't looking, or maybe the dead corpse coming alive and letting the Dentolura baby loose--anything to keep him from accepting the truth: The baby had escaped again. "It broke out," said Korryn, her voice tight with distress and worry. "Look, the glass is sprayed away from the container. It wasn't broken inwards: It was smashed out." Wiping a hand on his lips, Senton turned on his scientific brain. He'd been running on enthusiasm and instinct for too long. He needed to focus again, to turn himself toward what he'd been trained to do: Observe, hypothesize, experiment. What was different in here? What could he rely on that didn't touch his personal anxiety? Dropping into that mental state had helped him countless times before. When his mother had left them, he'd pulled himself deeper into his studies, one time tackling a genetic code that had been particularly vexing for days at a time with precious little sleep or food. He'd come to himself a week later, having discovered a mutation within one of the genomes he'd been studying that had explained how the specimen (it had been a particular kind of tree) had managed to adapt to the sunrays that came in through that spacestation's filtered windows. When his father had suffered his debilitating accident on a job done to provide support for Senton so he could continue his training, thereby leaving him mentally irreparable and physically broken, Senton had done the same thing. The project had been a theoretical treatise on the way evolution of microbial life had changed by being exposed to centuries of artificial gravity and the modified human experience. Though he'd pulled himself out of that state often enough to tend his father until his father, too tired to go on in such a crippled state, had passed away, Senton's had found this the best way to cope with the difficulties of life. Losing the lura wasn't on the same level as losing his parents--one to selfishness, one to selflessness--but the principle remained. If he could focus on the questions and the potential answers, he could quiet his mind enough to get the job done. It was one of his talents. "The body is different," he decided after a moment's quiet contemplation. Korryn glanced over. She'd been checking the perimeter of the room, opening the cupboards to see if it had somehow gotten itself into one of them. "Ugh. I don't want to look at that," she said, turning away. "But that's just it. I remember what I saw when we first walked in." "Before or after you puked?" His face prickled with an embarrassed flush. "After. And I know you don't want to look at it, but I think there's more of this guy that's missing. In fact, I'm almost positive." Her curiosity obviously piqued, Korryn came closer to the body. Her petite nose scrunched up in a way that he found attractive, but considering the context, not particularly sexy. She dropped to her haunches and stared at the horrible maiming Theodore had taken. His eyes, glassy and vacant, stared off at nothing, his face still tight with a now-silent scream of dismay. "What do you see that I don't?" she asked. Senton pointed. "That. And that. And some here." She stared at the indicated parts, but then shook her head. "I can't see it." "They're bite marks." "You're certain they weren't there before?" Senton let his eyes rove for a moment, then sighed. "As sure as I can be without evidence." "So, not very?" He paused. He didn't want to say what had come into his mind. For a brief moment, he figured that if he didn't talk, it would mean that what he saw wasn't true. But the impulse faded and he said, "I don't think there's a murderer loose in the Compound. I think it was the lura." Korryn blanched. "It's just a baby, though." "But look what it did to the container," said Senton, gesturing with his chin. "And see this?" He pointed to the jagged flesh around the torso. "The bite patterns are the same as what's taken out of the cheeks here and here." He pointed to the same spots as before. "Additionally, if you look at how the body was emptied out--" Korryn made a gagging noise, but waved him on to continue. "--you'll see that its size is only slightly larger than what the lura's body is." He gestured at the splatters of gore that surrounded them. "You see this? The way the drops formed…it's like something was writhing inside him, burrowing in him--" "Nope," said Korryn, standing up suddenly. "Nope, not gonna hold it." She spun and turned to the sink, her retching sound making him almost do the same. He gagged, but managed to keep his bile in place. Her reaction pulled him out of his analytical mind, and he stood up, no longer able to look at Theodore. He spotted a recycling bag on the abandoned trolley that still sat off to one side in the lab. Pulling it free, he dropped it over the upper part of the man's ruined body. "So you think," said Korryn as she washed her lips and turned back to him, her face ashen, "that your little friend ate its way through this guy, then, while we were out in the hall, had a second helping?" Senton rubbed the back of his head and avoided her eye contact. "I know that I said we don't know a lot about these creatures, and I stand by that, but…" He paused, looking guiltily at his workstation's viz-player, then back at Korryn before dropping her gaze. "We know enough to realize that they're dangerous creatures. That's why I was so anxious to study it," he said as Korryn dropped her hands in an exasperated gesture. "I wanted to know what they can really do." "Senton!" "What?" Korryn put one hand on her hip and leaned in, a movement that made Senton feel like he'd missed something important. "How are they supposed to be pets if they're dangerous?" He shook his head. He hadn't wanted to consider that. Disgusted, Korryn made to leave. "I'm done, this is stupid. I shouldn't be here." "Hey, wait," said Senton. "This doesn't have to be the end." He licked his lips, his mind suddenly blank. Losing his chance with Korryn was bad enough, but he'd lost the specimen, too. A double loss was too much for him to countenance. Licking his lips again, he said, "Wait, there's still a chance." "For what?" "Modification. Gene therapy." She rolled her eyes. "No, hear me out." He stepped in front of the door. "You can't leave without my aedee anyway. Listen for a second, this isn't irretrievable." "Get to the point, Trapp," she said, her irritation palpable. "We find a few more specimens. It doesn't matter which ones--like you said, the bigger ones will probably be better anyway--and we store them. Just like you wanted. Then, when we get them back to the Vanguard, I will turn off their killer instinct. That's inside their genes. I can reprogram them." "Like the digi…dige…what is it?" "Digenetics?" "Yeah, that." He nodded. "Exactly. The digital genetics protocols are safe for humans--we understand the technology really well. It shouldn't take too much for us to turn them docile. Then…" He held out his hands and forced a smile onto his face. "Then we sell them off and make all the money you want." Korryn paused. "It's risky." "With large rewards at the end." She thought a moment longer. "All right. We'll do it." She paused and looked at the body again. "This was just a fluke, right? An accident?" "I'm sure of it," he lied. Korryn nodded at the door. "We should get going. I think it went into the ventilation system again. If those things are after the baby, it'd be better to know where the baby is, right? After all, they're dangerous." Senton widened his eyes as he bobbed his head in agreement. "Very dangerous." At that moment, the Compound shook and the lights went out. Ann
As they waited for Charalee and Nolan to arrive at the lab, Senton worked himself into a fine state. He paced constantly, shooting nervous looks between the still-cooling corpse, Korryn, and Ann. For her part, Korryn stood in one corner, absorbed in her own thoughts. To Ann's mind, she seemed too distant, too calm. Ann wished she knew what either was thinking, but that, of course, was impossible. The communication she'd received earlier in the day floated up from the recesses of her mind. Lyle's so-called "Janus Protocol" would allow for the Office of Security to listen in on people's aedee communications. The whole thing was for safety's sake, Lyle had assured her, but Ann had always dismissed it. The fact that he had a prototype already prepared made her nervous, but at this particular moment--standing about the soiled lab, waiting for her sister, a potential killer on the loose, and the stress of knowing that she had deeply pissed off her boss--having some amount of control would be nice. She passed on the thought. Janus was a bad idea. She'd have to figure out what was going on the old-fashioned way. The door dilated and a very nervous Nolan led the way. Charalee came in--not as her normal, grandiose entrance was wont, but instead sweating and hair in disarray, trying to keep the creature--Senton's precious "lura"--under control in her helmet. Ann had to (begrudgingly) give her sister credit: She'd been clever with what was available to her. It was the work of the moment to get the lura back into its containment unit. The creature was obviously agitated, its gurgling squeaks quickly fading as the lid was closed. It ran against the sides of the container, slamming into it and dropping to the ground, only to stand and try again. "Doctor, I don't remember it behaving like that before," said Ann, who had watched the entire off-loading process without so much as a hello to her sister or Nolan. "It's agitated. Before, it was still sedate." "You sedated it?" "Not really. But it was scared, so it wasn't acting out." He hesitated, which let Ann know that he was likely making it all up as he went along. "That's my guess, anyway." "Yeah. "So, what do I get?" asked Charalee, wiping a hand against her brow. She still wore the skin-sheath that individual shuttles required for atmo-breaking. Ann caught Senton appreciating the way the skin-sheath hugged her sister's curvaceous body and rolled her eyes. "Is there some reward for finding this thing?" "No," said Ann. "But I'll thank you anyway." "What happened here?" asked Nolan, looking at the ground as if he hadn't noticed the gore when he came in. His already pale face lost another shade and Ann worried the man might pass out. "We aren't sure. We're trying to find out." "Shouldn't we get the security here?" asked Charalee, also looking at the mess, though more with disdain than revulsion. "I am security," said Ann. "And we'll have a crew here as soon as we can get this thing--" and she pointed at the creature "--out of here." "What?" said Senton, an exclamation that was echoed by Korryn in the corner. "You can't just take him!" "It's an escaped prisoner. We're lucky to have him back." "You're welcome," said Charalee in the tone of smug satisfaction and sarcasm that Ann remembered (and loathed) from years living together. "But I haven't had a chance to study him at all!" He waved his hands at the creature. "There's a lot more going on here than a lura, Senton," said Ann with more heat than she meant. The headache hadn't really improved, despite her aedee trying to put some restraints on it. "There's potentially a murderer on the Compound." Nolan held up a hand, confusion clear on his face. "Wait, what? A murderer?" Ann pointed at the ruins of Theodore. Nolan followed her finger, then recoiled, looking away. "Right. Ugh." "Look, we don't know who did this crime," said Senton, his eyes wide with eagerness and worry. "And I'm not saying we shouldn't look. But I don't think that means we should give up the lura. I mean…" He raised his hands, then dropped them in a movement of patent frustration. "I'm sorry this guy's dead, but I don't think that has anything to do with the specimen." Ann shot a glance at the lura, which was now too tired to do much beyond sit and tremble. The small "mouths" on its body opened and closed. The room stank of blood and sewage. Her head pounded. "Senton," she said, wiping a hand across her face, "you are wasting my time. My job is to find whoever took Theodore's handheld and figure out what really happened here. I've had my crew on the lookout for the last hour, but so far, there's no luck. We need to get this cleaned up as quickly and quietly as possible. That's my priority. Now that it's back--" another gesture at the lura "--you can dispose of it and I can go help them." "But you said--" "That was before," snapped Ann. "This is now. The terms have changed. We need to figure out too many things for me to worry about this creature." Senton, obviously panicking, looked at the other Timpson for help. "Where did you find it?" "Find it?" asked Charalee, glancing about in surprise. "In the tunnel." "What part? Was it the primary entrance tunnel, the side tunnels, Challenger's Pass?" Charalee gave him a blank look. "I have no idea what you're talking about. It was a tunnel. Glass on the sides, cement on the floor. Why does it matter?" "It was the side access to the Hangar entrance," said Nolan, one hand resting on his chin. It was clear to Ann that he was still trying hard not to look at the body but could hardly keep himself from doing so. Rolling her eyes, she waved everyone out and into the hall. As they left, she fingered a message to the janitorial staff that they would need to come clean the area once her forensic team had finished their job. The lack of hover-pods to this area had never seemed like such a major oversight before. Now, however, she could only grind her teeth in frustration that it took so long for anyone to arrive. "What was it doing before you captured it?" Senton was asking as Ann finished sending her comms. "Why does this matter, Senton?" asked Ann, losing patience faster than a PRISM engine pulling on a staranchor. The back of her mouth had a metallic taste, not unlike blood, but sourer and sharper. Her head throbbed. "Because," he said, "it does. Okay?" He turned his attention to Nolan and Charalee. "So? What did you see?" "It was scurrying around," said Charalee before Nolan could open his mouth. "It had popped out of one of the vents and was trying to get out into its natural habitat. It kept trying to scrape through the terraglass, from what I could tell." "It stunk," added Nolan. "It smelled really gross." "It stunk when we arrived in the lab," said Korryn softly. Senton frowned, but shook his head. "Well, we've been noticing that the Dentolura can communicate in a very primitive way. Nothing advanced, of course, but we've also seen some incredibly coordinated attacks on prey--stuff that couldn't work through vocalization." "What, they smell each other? Am I understanding you correctly?" asked Charalee. Ann heard the sharpness of irritation in her sister's voice, and for once she felt the same way as she. "I think they communicate through pheromones," said Senton, taking a deep breath. "How does that pertain to its behavior in the tunnel?" asked Ann. "Well," said Senton, holding up his hand and wiggling his fingers. It took him a moment to access what he wanted, but when he did, he gestured at everyone around him. Ann felt her palm cool--a query to allow a download. She gave a thumbs up and the hand returned to its normal temperature. She looked down at the flesh-display of her aedee--a soothing purple that stood out well against the brown of her skin--and saw that it was a diagram of the Compound. Specifically, Senton had sent them a map of the schematics of the primary access tunnel to the Hangar. "Do you see this?" he asked, enlarging his display. The connected aedees all did the same, though Charalee stared at Senton with a bored expression. She, apparently, hadn't been given access to the Compound's network yet. That was strange. "It's an external vent," said Korryn, her voice soft. It seemed like she didn't want to draw attention to herself, but she also didn't want to be left out of the conversation. Ann couldn't pretend to understand someone like that. "Exactly." Ann frowned, then thought harder on the implications. What was it that Senton had said? That the lura could send off pheromones? And it was standing next to a vent… Ann inhaled sharply. "Oh, no." "What?" said Charalee, shaking her head as if she'd tuned into the conversation only when she heard her sister gasp. "It called for help." Senton nodded his head and Ann felt her guts go watery. "That thing sent out a distress call through the ventilation system, didn't it?" "Possibly. That's what I'm worried about." "But so what?" asked Charalee. "There's a massive fence that's protecting the Compound. I saw it on my approach." "It got breached by the storm yesterday," said Ann. "Crews have been trying to repair it, but my last report shows that it's not finished." Nolan, who had been facing away from the group while they discussed the problem, turned back to them now. "You know what?" he asked, shifting on his pudgy feet. "What is it, Nolan?" asked Ann, pushing away her headache and her exhaustion. Taking the downer had affected her energy more than she cared to admit. She needed some Calm, but she also knew that now was not the time for it. She had to rely on her own strength to get her through this small crisis. "Did you know you can see that area of the perimeter fence from here?" "Yeah," said Senton. "It's on the schematic. Plus, you only have to look outside." Everyone stared at him. "What?" he asked, gesturing at the windows. "It's not a big deal. I know everyone talks about how the Compound is like a maze, but it's fine. Really. You can figure out where you are if you just--" "No, I should have said, 'You know how you can see the broken part of the fence from here?' And you were supposed to say, 'Yeah. Why?' And then I would say, 'It's bigger.' And then you'd all--" The group rushed past him, almost knocking him over in their haste. Even Charalee wanted to see what he saw. Ann recognized the problem immediately. In the bright lights that always kept the Compound illuminated, the hole in the fence gaped at them like a dark wound in a pale body. The tree that had toppled it had been removed, but only a thin membrane had been put up to dissuade the luras on the other side from coming to investigate the place. Ann's mouth went dry as she saw a large Dentolura--similar shape to the one inside their lab, except easily fifteen times larger, perhaps more--push against the membrane. Electricity--not much, enough to discourage the curious--crackled against the creature's body. At this distance, she couldn't see a lot of details, but it quickly became clear what was happening. The creatures were breaking into the Compound. Ann
Her head felt like it was being squeezed by two enormous hands. Every sound and light sent a different, mild pain into her skull, but because the sounds were the buzzing of the alarm and the swirling of the emergency lights, what should have been a minor irritation had turned into a full-fledged migraine. Spots floated behind her eyelids every time she closed them (which she did as often as possible), and the right side of her tongue had gone numb. The tips of her right finger likewise had lost feeling. On the whole, Ann felt sick. She had none to blame but herself, as everything had unraveled what felt like moments--but was probably closer to twenty minutes--after she'd taken the Calm and read her sister's comm. Then Senton and Korryn had arrived, trying to make an argument that was cut off when Senton started yelping about a breach in his lab. The distance from Ann's office to Senton's lab was long enough that a hover-pod would have been nice, but there weren't any available--too many other needs from the repair crews and those trying to get that blasted Portal ready--and they'd been forced to get there under their own power. She'd managed to sneak a downer pill to help cut off the effects of the Calm, but that had brought on her migraine. Seeing all the blood had made it much worse. When Senton had said that it had escaped, Ann had pulled rank and ordered a delay on in- and outgoing traffic as a precaution. The last thing she needed was for the creature to sneak onto a departing shuttle and get off planet. When they'd arrived at the lab itself, it was clear this was a full-blown emergency. There was so much blood. Now she regretted putting the lockdown into effect. Not only was Captain Rall trying to raise her via aedee (which she kept dismissing, despite the heat on her temple letting her know she had a voicecomm coming through), but it was clear that someone had been in here, which meant that there was a possibility that the creature had escaped in someone's arms. The problems were large, and the captain's insistence on being briefed didn't help. Finally, as Senton finished cleaning up his own puke, Ann took the call. "Yes, sir?" she asked with a sigh. "You're on lockdown without authority!" said Captain Rall without preamble. "Yes, sir." She explained the situation. "It seemed the best choice." "There's a xeno in our Compound?" Ann closed her eyes. Usually Rall was a reasonable person, willing to listen to whatever his subordinates had to say. But this was an uncharted world and unexpected things led to unexpected choices, few of which would be considered good. He was understandably, if a touch too loudly, concerned. "Yes, sir." "Who authorized that?" Ann winced at the sound of the shout as it ricocheted in her ears. Stroking down on her temple, she indicated to the aedee to lower the volume. "I did, sir." "Are you insane?" "Sir, it was captured by one of our scientists. He made a compelling case that we could benefit from studying it." In the background, Korryn was muttering to Senton in a low tone that Ann couldn't easily overhear. She tweaked her aedee so that it would record the conversation and Ann could play it back at her leisure. "And is this what he had in mind?" "No, sir. There was…a breach." "You don't damn say," snapped the captain. "What happened?" "Near as we can tell from the logs, the janitor--" Captain Rall swore softly and profanely under his breath, but it was clear he wasn't interrupting her. "--entered the room. Approximately fifteen minutes later, he opened the door. Then, five minutes after that, he opened it again." "Okay. So hunt him down. What's his aedee signal?" "Sir, he's still with us." "He is? What's his name?" "Theodore Culley." "I want his ass in my office--" "I should have said, sir, that he's the late Theodore Culley." "What? Speak sense, Chief. I'm in no mood for games." "I am standing in the lab, sir, and there is…a lot of blood. It looks like whoever killed Culley also removed most of his organs." Rall gasped. "The thing is, sir, he's an Anachronist." "Piss and hell," snarled Captain Rall. "So what data do we have?" "His handheld is missing--we only know he entered because he scanned it, as I said, three times. My visual check verifies that he's a janitor and is authorized to be here. But who killed him and why we don't know. The point is, sir, the door opened after he died. We can see bloody streaks." "You think he was murdered?" "It's the most likely scenario," said Ann in a cool voice. "The janitor was doing his job, someone pounded on the door, he opened it up, he died." "Any visual feeds?" Ann shook her head, then regretted the movement. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she gave a long look at the ceiling. "No, sir. This is a classified containment lab. Per DP instructions, this room is to be kept blind and deaf--" "Yes, yes, I know. I was hoping it was a different room." Ann didn't give voice to the fact that she had strenuously opposed the DP policy when she'd heard it. Unfortunately for her, she had been overruled. "And the creature?" "That's the lockdown, sir. We've lost it." "What, it walked away?" Ann looked around. Senton and Korryn were done talking now, and were waiting for her to finish her conversation. "I don't know, sir. That's what I'm trying to find out." "Then do your job. But let's do it quietly." Ann drew up in surprise. "Are you saying to stop the lockdown?" "Heightened security, yes. Lockdown? No. Once the morning breaks and we have direct sunlight, we're going to fire up the Portal. The last thing I need is a wide-scale lockdown screwing everything up." "Sir, I don't think that's advisable." Rall, his voice suddenly sharp, said, "I don't care. See to it." "Yes, sir," said Ann, disconnecting her aedee and pushing aside her anger at being so hastily dismissed. It wasn't personal; she knew that. Didn't change the fact that she felt her authority had been undercut. Raising her hand to utilize her flesh-display, Ann turned off the authority for the lockdown and sent out the command from her aedee. Sometimes it was nice to have one's entire body be the computer by which one did things. In this case, it meant that the entire Compound could instantly receive the message that the lockdown was over--it was just a drill--and thank you for your cooperation. The silence was a welcome reprieve. Ann looked around the room again. There were speckles of blood all the way up to the ceiling, with splatters headed in many different directions. Running a forensic protocol on her aedee, it didn't take long for Ann to see that whatever had torn up this guy had done so with a great deal of gusto. And the fact that she couldn't see traces of any of the organs? That was an alarming reality, too. "Chief," said Senton, his voice raspy still from his sick-up, "we need to find the lura." "We? We don't. You do." Korryn interrupted, "Chief, it wasn't his fault…" "You two came to tell me you thought of something different to do with the creature. You left the room, didn't you." It wasn't a question. She didn't even need to wait for a response. "You were negligent, and now a person is dead and that creature is escaped. There could even be a murderer on the loose." "No, sir, that isn't the case," said Senton, pointing at the bloody streaks on the ground. The blood had been drying for the better part of an hour, but it still glistened in the harsh light of the lab. "See that?" "I see bloodstains." "No, they're not stains. It's what we were talking about," he said, gesturing to himself and Korryn, who nodded her agreement. "They're too regular. See? They head from the corpse toward the ventilation system. The lura escaped through there." "So who left?" "I don't know," said Korryn, "but I noticed this." She pointed at a partial footprint close to the door. "It's like mine. She hastily added, "But not exactly. They're standard issue footwear for most women in the Compound." She held up her left foot, and Ann could see that the treads were similar to those left behind in the blood of the floor. "Okay. I'm going to find this woman and talk to her. You two," she said, pointing an angry finger at Senton and Korryn, "figure out how to find the creature. And, while you're at it, stay here. Don't touch anything." "Do we…do we have to stay with the body?" "I'll send some of my crew to help clean up in a minute. But they're going to need your testimonies." "Chief Timpson," said Senton, his nervousness apparent in the way he shook his hands, "please don't kill the lura." "What? Why?" "It's important." "People are important, Senton. People's lives and security are important." "I know, but I don't want anything to happen to the Dentolura. I'm…" He didn't finish his sentence, as Ann received a call. She put her hand up, then extended her thumb and pinky, letting the aedee connect the communication. It was Nolan Lannings. "Sir," he said, his voice strained. "Sir, where are you?" "I'm in the containment laboratory. Why? Where are you?" "I, um…I went to pick up the Envoy." The word made Ann's head clench and her stomach flop. She'd almost forgotten that her sister was planetside now. "Yes. And is she here?" "Yes, Chief, but…well…" Irritation welled within her. "Spit it out, man. What's the problem?" "I think she found something that you might be interested in seeing." |
What is this?This is a NaNoWriMo project that publishes, day by day, the chapters I'm writing for 2017. If you're confused, go to Chapter 1 Ann and start there. ArchivesCategories
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