BENEATH - A Novel (42 page)

Her attack had gouged a huge hole in the facemask. But she could already see the self healing materials kicking in. She couldn't reach him to press the attack before the mask was healed, so she stood her ground and prepared for the worst. Peterson held onto the side of the control panel and pulled himself up. His face was covered in dense sweat that trickled over his skin. He was suffering from more than the blow Choi had just given him. She was sure of it.

"We felt what you did to the others," Peterson said, his voice wavering slightly. "Twenty thousand three hundred and five of our kind. Destroyed by your plague." Peterson began a steady advance toward Choi. "Their deaths and sacrifice will pale in comparison to the suffering you will experience before you are decontaminated."

Choi clenched her fists. "You brought me to them. It was you who passed the plague on. You broke quarantine. You are to blame for their deaths."

Peterson snarled and lunged forward. Choi attempted to dive away, but one of his hands caught hold of her boot. He pulled her to the ground. In the next instant, Choi was pulled up by her legs and tossed toward the TES pit.

He's trying to throw me in
! she thought.

She landed just short.

Choi regained her footing as Peterson reached her. She swung at his head and connected solidly, but the pain in her hand far outweighed the jolt Peterson received. Not conceding defeat, Choi ducked low and swung three left hooks into Peterson's side. Her punches had no effect. Peterson brought his arm up and caught Choi under her chin with his forearm. She sprawled backwards, closer still to the hole melted in the ice.

Peterson reached her before she made it to her feet.

"Time to feel real pain," Choi said through her blood soaked mouth. Balanced on one knee, she took careful aim and snapped her fist out like a striking snake. She connected dead on with Peterson's crotch. It was a blow that would have sent even the most disciplined man to the floor.

Peterson reacted like a castrated man. He smiled.

"I have disconnected the pain sensors in this mind," Peterson said. "You cannot stop what I am about to do."

Peterson swung his leg out and punted her into the TES hole. She descended ten feet before bouncing off the frozen wall. The impact knocked her unconscious. She didn't even feel the water envelop her body as she entered the Europian ocean and sunk into the frigid depths.

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Robert and Willard had left the cave a full minute ago, moving quickly after learning Connelly's suicidal plans. Robert had put up a momentary fuss, but she squelched it quickly. Their feelings might be out in the open, but she was in charge and ultimately, he respected her decision.
 
They'd retracted the fins and sailed easily out of the watery cave and into the open ocean.

They should be half way to the surface by now
, Connelly thought.
Far enough
.

Connelly shined her headlamp into the cave entrance and saw dancing shadows rushing towards her like flood water. That was her cue. Connelly raised the wrench over her head and brought it down on the oxygen tank's cap. The metal on metal impact shook her arm, but the cap remained solid. Connelly repeated the action several times and began wondering if she lacked the physical strength to break the top off. Just as she began loosing track of the number of strikes the top blew off with an explosion of air and launched the oxygen tank in the tunnel.

The first of the creeps had just reached the caves entrance and were shattered by the projectile. Limbs were still scattering across the cave floor when the first of the creeps dove into the cave and hopped madly toward Connelly.

The air tank rocketed through the cave system, straight for the central cavern. It pummeled past every creep in its path. But the desired effect—a spark—never occurred, the stone walls were coated with advancing creeps and their bodies served as a buffer, metal and stone never connected.

Connelly swatted away the first creep to lunge at her, but the second was too quick. It launched onto her face mask and began scratching at it, using its forelimbs like jig saws. She felt a pressure grow around her legs as more of the creatures latched on and began probing for chinks in the PMS armor. Oddly, she felt cool and collected.

She reached up and yanked the creep from her face mask and quickly snapped its relatively fragile limbs. The creature writhed and let go its hold on her facemask. She could now see that five creeps were busy at work, gnawing at her legs, while a constant stream of the creatures poured out of the entrance. Connelly's fear wasn't of the creeps. Her own self made bomb, which was still careening through the cave system was much more of a threat to her life than the army of creeps.

The idea of tearing through hordes of attacking enemies appealed to some primal instinct deep within her, but there wasn't even time to remove the creatures from her legs. She hopped twice and then dove into the water.

Instantly, the creeps attached to her legs let go and flailed as they sank to the bottom and drowned. Connelly took aim at the mouth of the cave and kicked the propulsion pack into overdrive. With a snap of her neck, Connelly launched forward, out of the cave and into the brightly decorated open ocean. She squinted back at the luminous colors of the bioluminescent world. She'd forgotten how beautiful it all was.

For the first time since her encounter with the blue Europhids, Connelly felt a twang of sadness. She knew it got through whatever emotion filter the Europhids had given her because it was an authentic and appropriate. Live or die, she would never see the Europian ocean or its rare beauty again.
 
Connelly turned up and headed for the surface.

Back in the cave system, the oxygen tank rounded the last of several turns, crushing a swath of creeps as it slid at breakneck speeds. With a burst of creep bodies, it entered the massive cavern housing the creep colony and patches of red Europhids. Understanding the metal projectile's intention, a flurry of tendrils shot up like fans doing the wave at a baseball game. They reached out for the tank, but all that connected met the same limbless fate as the creeps.

After sailing fifty feet, the tank fell to the floor and smashed through a patch of Europhids. The impact knocked the tank up and over a second patch. Spindly red limbs stretched out for the tank, but missed. When it landed again, its jagged metal top, which Connelly had severed with the wrench, struck the stone at twenty miles per hour, creating a shower of sparks.

In the methane filled atmosphere, it was enough.

As though God had just created a new star within the confines of the cavern, every particle of methane trapped inside combusted. The outpouring flames incinerated every living thing in the cavern and quickly expanded through the only exit, frying the army of creeps in its wake. When the expanding explosion reached the outer edges of the cave system, it did the only thing it could, pushed up and through the mantle and burst into the open ocean. The caverns flooded in seconds. A shockwave and chaotic stream of bubbles raced towards the surface.

Towards Connelly.

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"Can't we go any faster?" Willard said

Robert wished he could say yes, but going faster was not an option. The sound of a massive explosion had roared past them as they ascended through the Europian ocean. After the sound had passed, Robert felt as though his mind had been scrambled with a wire whisk, but he also knew the worst was yet to come. The devastating effects of an underwater explosion rose up through the depths like a leviathan. The TES sphere would be shaken apart and swallowed into the depths.

"We're approaching the cable," Robert said as he worked the controls. "We have to slow down to attach."

"Well, don't miss."

Robert shot Willard an annoyed glance. "I'll do my best." The cable appeared above, encircled by the large melted hole. "Choi must have stalled Peterson. The hole isn't frozen over."

The sphere approached the cable. Robert held his breath as he delicately maneuvered the sphere into position. A loud clunk echoed through the sphere as it was jolted by contact. Three loud clicks sounded out, one at a time, as the locking mechanism engaged. A green light flashed on the console.

"We're locked in!" Robert shouted. He quickly popped open a panel, which revealed a red switch and the label, EMERGENCY RETRACT. "Hold on." Robert flipped the switch.

Like an amusement park ride, they launched up through the hole, passing strata of ice so fast that the ten foot layers became a blur of color. Robert let the air in his lungs slowly seep out, allowing himself the slightest reprieve. He knew they would safely outrun the shockwave now that they were headed topside, but Connelly...

Robert looked up to say a silent prayer. He didn't know if there was a God, but he believed in covering all his bases, and with Connelly's life on the line, he didn't have anything to lose. But as he looked up, he saw a dark shape approaching from above. "What's that?" he said.

Willard looked up. "Don't know…but we're going to hit it." Willard looked at Robert. "Will the sphere hold against an impact at this speed?"

Robert paused. "I have no idea."

As they grew closer to the object the shape became distinctly human. "Oh no…" Robert said. "Who is it?"

Willard shook his head. "Better brace for impact. If this egg cracks, we might be able to swim to the surface."

"Doubtful," Robert said, gripping the arm rests of his chair. "We lack the buoyancy."

"Thank you for the optimism," Willard said.

As the sphere came within ten feet of the body, a pressure wave of water, pushed up by the ascending sphere, saved their lives. The body was pushed up and around the outside of the sphere. As they passed it, Robert clearly saw Choi's face, alert and panicked. She was reaching out for the sphere, but the pass was so quick, she didn't have a chance.

"That was close," Willard said.

"That was Choi."

Willard looked into Robert's eyes.

"She was alive," Robert said.

Willard remained silent for a moment, his face becoming gravely serious. "Then he's still up there."

Robert nodded. Peterson had sent Choi to a death no person deserved. If she wasn't killed by the shockwave, she'd asphyxiate on the ocean floor…or perhaps be eaten by an alien predator. Either way, her death would be solitary and very uncomfortable. The Europhids had to be stopped. That meant Peterson had to be stopped…by whatever means necessary…if they reached the top.

Robert's only hope was that the control panel would confuse whatever intelligence had consumed Peterson. Even if the Europhids had absorbed every bit of Peterson's mind, they still wouldn't know how to operate TES. He had never been trained. And the command to disengage the sphere was buried under so much protective protocol, he was sure it wouldn't be found in a short span of time. As long as Peterson didn't think to stop the ascent—that could be done with the push of a button.

The oceanic world became a blur of color as Connelly shot toward the frozen ceiling like a torpedo. She had the propulsion pack pounding out more speed for longer than it was designed to handle. It had been created for undersea exploration, which was normally very slow and methodical, not for drag races. A tight vibration tingled Connelly's back. The pack was nearing its breaking point.

Just another minute
, Connelly thought.

But a propulsion pack failure wasn't the only danger she faced now. The PMS suit had an uncanny ability to handle multiple extreme pressures, from the vacuum of space to the compression of the deep sea. But Connelly's rapid ascent was testing the limits of how quickly the PMS could adapt to significant pressure changes. The higher she climbed, the more quickly the suit had to compensate for lesser amounts of pressure. And once Connelly reached the top of the hole, the PMS would endure the ultimate test as it exited the pressurized water and entered open space.

With the shockwave booming up from below, Connelly sensed danger on all sides. By all rights, she should already be dead. But she zipped forward on a direct course for the hole above her head.

As she approached the hole, which was illuminated only by the bright lamp on Connelly's helmet, something fluttered out.

A body.

Connelly feared that it might be Robert or Willard. Perhaps Peterson had found a way to destroy the sphere on its way to the surface? She was relieved to see that whoever it was still had life in them. Arms and legs pulled and kicked at the water in an attempt to slow the descent, but the body continued down at a steady rate.

Adjusting her course to a slightly less steep angle, Connelly maneuvered in to intercept the sinking victim. She reached the body quicker than anticipated, still cruising at full speed. The impact knocked the breath out of her and caused whoever it was to flail. Probably thought an alien predator was having a go. Connelly wrapped her arms around the person's shoulders. She arched her back and resumed her vertical rise.