Children of Scarabaeus (32 page)

By the time they were ready to go, Finn had improved to the point of being able to sit up. His breathing was less labored, though he was still disturbingly pale and listless.

They trundled toward Cat’s pod, a green dot on the scope, cutting a meandering path to avoid pits and boulders because Vlissides wasn’t sure how much the vehicle could handle. The pod had landed in a shallow ravine, so the way out was uphill. After an hour’s bumpy ride, Edie took over the driving. They rounded the crest and a new landscape was revealed.

Galeon saw it first. Edie was too busy negotiating obstacles and checking the scope and the nav chart to ensure they were on course for the other pod.

“Look, it’s Macky!” He ran from one window to the next for the best view.

A couple of kilometers in the distance, dozens of enormous dark structures rose up from the ground. Their isolated location, surrounded by near-barren plains, convinced her this was the site of a BRAT—but this was nothing like what she’d encountered a year ago. Tight clusters of terraced pyramids and mounds were pierced by spires that spiraled a hundred meters or more into the indigo sky.

Edie stopped the vehicle and drew in her breath. Her immediate reaction sent a chill through her.
It doesn’t look natural
. A year ago, every BRAT on the planet had become enclosed in a matted dome of vegetation, a megabiosis several kilometers in diameter, created by mutated biocyph caught in a feedback loop. When she and the rovers had climbed into the depths of one of these domes, she’d seen the amazing results of that distorted evolution. As bizarre and unique as the megabiosis had looked at first glance, everything she’d encountered seemed to belong to Scarabaeus.

Flora and fauna fitted together and functioned in harmony as an ecosystem should.

The irregular structures ahead, while clearly organic, looked like a living city of skyscrapers. A man-made city.

At her side, Vlissides let out a low whistle. “Well, that is fucking weird.”

Galeon tugged at Finn’s arm to get him to stand. “Take a look. You have to see this!”

Finn struggled onto one of the seats with a view out the window. He planted his bare feet on the floor to steady himself, and looked out.

“Let’s go there,” Galeon said. “I know Macky wants to meet us properly.”

“Not tonight,” Edie said. Not ever. Scarabaeus had claimed too many lives. “Anyway, we have to meet up with Cat’s pod. Don’t you want to see the girls and make sure everyone’s okay?”

Galeon shrugged and acquiesced. “Suppose so.”

“It’s over there.” Vlissides pointed out a side window.

Edie saw the pod’s light a few hundred meters away, and headed for it.

The two pods mated in the dark, side by side to create a habitat. The children were settled down in one, catching up on sleep after their alarming early morning start. Finn was hooked up to drugs and oxygen. In a proper medfac they’d have engineered nanoteck to repair his damaged lungs. Their equipment here was far more basic. Keeping infection at bay was the main priority while Finn’s body healed itself.

“In the morning I intend to check the third pod wreckage for survivors.” Vlissides was adamant about it.

Edie’s heart felt heavy but she nodded. It was surely hopeless.

“No sign of wreckage from the
Molly Mei
,” Cat said from her seat up front, where she manned the scope. “But it probably came down hundreds of klicks from here. It could be anywhere.”

“We have to warn other ships somehow,” Edie said. “Tell them not to link to the commsat when they approach the planet.”

Corinth had an idea about that. “We can set up a signal from the pod’s comm system. A ship will only pick it up if it’s pretty much directly overhead, but it’s better than nothing.”

Cat agreed, and they set to work creating a repeating message for the pods to broadcast. Vlissides wisely stayed out of the way. Meanwhile, Edie took stock of their supplies. Dirtside, oxygen and solar power weren’t going to be a problem, so food and water were the limiting factors. With five adults and four children, she estimated they could last about thirty days if they were careful, perhaps longer if they found a clean water supply.

Thirty days was plenty of time for a rescue ship to come. Crib Central was already aware of the
Plantagenet
’s sudden disappearance, and now the
Molly Mei
had vanished as well. Help was surely already on the way—if they could outwit whatever controlled the commsat.

And Natesa was on the way, too.

They had pulled stowaway bunks out of the walls in preparation for the night. Edie knelt by Finn’s bunk and compulsively checked his vitals for the fourth time that hour. She caught him watching her, his eyes gleaming in the reflected light of the med-teck over his head. His breath rasped in and out, his bare chest the only part of him that moved.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I’m drowning.”

“Do you remember what I told you—about what happened?”

“The
Molly Mei
crashed when…something took control of the commsat and screwed up its navigation.” He’d been more aware than she’d thought at the time.

“And Natesa. She’s coming.”

He nodded. “I remember.”

Her fingers fluttered to the beetle inlay at her throat in a nervous gesture. “If you have any ideas…”

“Other than you pleading for my life?”

“Well, the commsat’s out, or at least not under our control. Her ship will probably crash, too.”

“Not before she’s had a chance to use that detonator.”

“Even if I could talk to her, I don’t think she’ll listen. She wants to punish me.” She drew a deep breath and tried to think positive. “Or maybe she’s forgotten all about you and me. She wants Pris back. Maybe she’s just coming for the children.”

“We’ll see. At least, you’ll see. I guess I won’t know what hit me.”

Nights on Scarabaeus were short—only six hours long. As soon as dawn broke, Vlissides made preparations to leave for the other lifepod. He ignored Edie’s warnings. Despite nothing showing up on the scopes all night, she wasn’t sure it was safe. She’d seen those images of the huge slaters Theron’s team had encountered. This was a big planet—maybe there were no slaters in this area. That didn’t mean there might not be other dangers. She’d witnessed firsthand the innovative ways Scarabaeus had developed to protect itself. Judging from the appearance of the city ahead, the planet had developed a few new tricks since then.

To Edie and Cat’s surprise, out of some sort of sense of honor, Corinth volunteered to go with Vlissides. Even Corinth didn’t seem too happy about it. Vlissides was grateful for the support. He strapped on the spur he’d been wearing when they abandoned ship—their only weapon. They both clipped on topped-up e-shields and went out the airlock, Vlissides limping badly.

Edie couldn’t stop them from doing what they felt they needed to do, but she spent long anxious minutes watching them on the scope—two green dots moving away from the habitat toward the dense shrub and rocks that surrounded the crashed pod. It showed up as a faint heat blur. At least the weather was good—windy, but mild and dry. The scopes showed the landscape was desert as far as they could read.
Megabioses formed by drawing in biomass from surrounding areas over the years, leaving the land barren.

“An unlikely couple, huh?” Cat said, coming over to watch the scope with Edie. “I can’t believe Corinth went with him.”

“It was the decent thing to do.”

“Yeah. Decent. That’s Corinth.”

Edie took a good look at Cat’s dreamy smile. “Are you two…? Jezus, Cat, you’re a fast worker.”

At the sound of squabbling from the next pod, Edie went to sort out the children. She assigned them jobs—Hanna and Raena to tidy up, Galeon to organize rations for the next two meals, and Pris to divide up the blankets, toiletries, and clothes in the supply lockers. They were all desperate to go outside. Edie was just as determined to keep them safely in.

Finn lay in a corner, barely moving. She couldn’t tell when he was conscious and when he wasn’t. While she checked the med-teck, she heard Vlissides report that they’d reached the lifepod.

“It’s broken open, burnt up.” A few minutes later he added, “Strange. No sign of bodies.”

“Are any of the supplies salvageable?” Cat asked.

“We’re still looking. I doubt it.”

Something on the wide scope caught Edie’s eye as she joined Cat. “Guys, there’s something moving at the edge of the city.”

“Could you be more precise?” Vlissides said.

“I can’t make it out on the cams but the scope shows activity, a ripple of movement.” Her gut churned while she tried to keep her voice calm.

The ripple on the scope started to spread and move out from the city. The scope picked up heat differentials and movement, displaying the result as a sim on a real-time holoviz. For an actual visual, Edie checked the externally mounted cams—and on full zoom they showed only a dark, indistinct flurry.

“What the fuck is that?” Cat said.

“Can you see anything yet?” Edie asked the men.

“Nothing. But we’re a good thousand meters from the city, aren’t we?” Corinth said.

“Still, I think you should get back.”

“We’ll be done here in twenty minutes,” Vlissides said curtly.

Whatever it was on the scope, it seemed to coalesce into a more distinct mass. Then it moved again—this time in a very definite direction.

“It’s moving toward you.” Edie heard the urgency in her voice. “Heading toward the crash site.”

“Corinth, are you seeing anything?” Vlissides didn’t sound convinced.

“Uh…yeah, something’s out there,” Corinth said. His commlink crackled as if he was moving or climbing. “Way in the distance.”

“It knows you’re here.” Edie wiped sweaty palms against her thighs. She wasn’t even sure what she meant by “it”—only that it was unlikely to be friendly. “You need to head back—now!”

She was relieved to hear Vlissides agree. She had no authority over him but she trusted him to at least act rationally. She watched the scope as whatever it was moved closer to the crash site. The comm filled with the sound of the men’s heavy breathing and shouting as they ran. Two minutes later, the cams picked them up as they cleared the shrub and headed for the habitat.

A single black shape appeared behind them, creeping low to the ground. Then another.

“Ohhhh…Oh, shit,” Cat said.

Edie glanced at the scope. Most of the creatures still headed toward the crash site. A few isolated ones had broken away to follow the retreating men. From their size and appearance, even at this distance, Edie knew what they were—the ferocious slaters that Theron’s team had encountered.

As Edie watched, Vlissides turned and raised his spur.

“Don’t fire at them!” Edie yelled over the comm, surprised
when Vlissides obeyed and kept running with a pronounced limp. “Keep moving.
Faster!”

It had taken them almost an hour to walk out there, taking it slow because of Vlissides’s injuries. The zoomed-in cams gave a false impression of how much ground they were gaining. They were a good ten minutes from the habitat. Vlissides looked unsteady on his feet, though he managed to keep up with Corinth. Every dozen paces or so, he stumbled and even fell a couple of times.

“They’re in trouble.” It was Finn, leaning on the back of her seat. His breathing sounded better, but his face was strained. He wore only the canvas pants he’d gone into cryosleep with.

“I can see that. I told Vlissides not to fire but that doesn’t mean they won’t be attacked.”

“Or that he’ll be able to resist firing,” Cat said.

“Close that hatch.” Edie pointed to the airlock between the two pods. “I don’t want the children to see anything.”

Finn did so, moving stiffly as though every muscle ached. Then he came back to watch the cams again. Vlissides and Corinth were halfway to the habitat, the slaters staying apace fifty meters behind them. Edie was sure the creatures could move faster if they wanted to. For some reason they held back.

The scope showed the bad news—the remaining slaters turned from the crash site, as one mass, and proceeded after the fleeing humans. Their pace was much faster, as if they were hurrying to catch up. Edie waited for the inevitable images from the cams. A minute passed, another ten seconds, and then she saw them—a nightmarish onslaught of black creatures crawling through the undergrowth. Their black carapaces gleamed in the sun.

Vlissides’s bad ankle had caught up with him and he’d fallen behind.

“We have to help them.” Edie turned to Finn, waiting for him to come up with a solution.

“What do you suggest?”

“I don’t know. Think of something!”

Finn shook his head, like he knew it was hopeless. “Can we move the pod closer?”

“We don’t have time. Took us fifteen minutes to get the wheels out and put it in driving mode yesterday. And unless we disconnect the other pod, it’ll be real slow going. And we can’t leave the children behind.”

“Do we have any more weapons?”

“No, nothing,” Edie said.

But Finn looked anyway—he was a soldier, after all—and found a flare gun. “Maybe they’re scared of bright lights,” he said grimly.

“You have no boots. You can barely stand…”

“Someone has to go out there.” He glanced at Cat, who looked like she was going to be sick.

Vlissides stumbled again and fell. Edie held her breath as a slater crept toward him. He rolled over and onto his knees, aimed his spur and fired. The creature exploded in a gush of milky blood. It spurted over him and slid off his e-shield.

The slaters veered away from Vlissides and descended on Corinth in a swarm. Cat let out a cry of helplessness.

Corinth’s e-shield could only take so much. Under the combined attack and weight of so many creatures, it would eventually fail. There was no point warning Vlissides not to fire now. He couldn’t override his instincts and training. He sprayed the slaters with bullets, killing a few, scaring off the rest long enough for Corinth to drag himself up.

A shrill clicking sound carried to the habitat, muted by the bulkheads but chilling all the same. And with it, sounds from the children in the next pod. They didn’t have access to the cam feeds, but the slaters were close enough now to be seen with the naked eye. Edie heard excited chatter mixed with startled cries and whimpers as the children began to realize something terrible was going on outside.