Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier. (23 page)

“Just like the
others,” said the Governor.

“We’ll be at the
capital in eight minutes, Governor,” said Jensen, checking her timer.  “Please
have the people I asked for, and all evidence you’ve gathered from past
attacks, at the meeting place.  Jensen out.”

The Major leaned
back in her chair after killing the com, then looked over at the Pilot.  “I
want our other equipment on the ground, or in the water, as soon as possible.”

“No rest for the
wicked, I guess,” said Zaya with a slight smile.  “It will take two trips to
get everything down, Major.  I was thinking, since the liner won’t be leaving
this space for at least a couple of weeks, I could take some time and look
around a bit.  For intelligence purposes, you know.”

“There’ll be
enough time to drink and scout out the local boys and girls, Sarnai.  But right
now I’m not sure what we’re getting into.  I want everything where we can use
it.  Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,”
said the dejected Warrant Officer.

“Good girl.  We
have a job to do here, then we can worry about down time.”

The shuttle set
down on the landing field outside the Capitol complex.  The city overlooking
the field was not large, at most fifty thousand people, as cities tended to be
on frontier worlds where there was room to stretch out.  Only a couple of small
skyscrapers, each displaying the logo of a megacorp, the business headquarters
of those companies on this world.  Most of the rest of the city was made up of
low rises, no more than ten stories, most less than five.  The hillside
overlooking the city was alive with the lights of individual residences.  On
the waterfront was a small cluster of docks and warehouses, several good sized
vessels anchored out in the harbor, smaller ones tied up at the docks.  There
was no moon in the sky this night.

“It’s
beautiful,” exclaimed the Major as she disembarked from the shuttle, looking up
at the horizon where the Milky Way was rising.  She saw that she was not the
only one staring at the sight of more stars than she had ever seen in one place.

Overhead there
were sparse twinkles from the nearest stars, most forty or more light years
from New Lemuria.  The planet was over two thousand light years out from the
center of the Galactic disc, fifteen hundred from the concentration of stars
that was the plane of the Galaxy.  Stars were sparse out this far, though there
were still enough with habitable planets to make colonization worthwhile.  And
the perspective of being this far out from the center, the thick band of stars
in the Perseus Arm provided a light show of almost unequaled splendor.  They
could make out the entire width of the arm, could make out the curve of the
length, as well as the dark bands of gas clouds to both sides.   A totally
different perspective from what humankind has evolved with, looking though the
disc of the Galaxy, with all of the obscuring gas clouds in the way.  Jensen
thought she could stand here forever and look at the glorious display of
literally billions of stars. 
But that’s not why they sent us out here
,
she thought, turning away from splendor so she could deal with horror.

*     *     *

Government House
was a low building, three stories, though spread across several hundred acres. 
Like most frontier worlds, space was not at a premium on this planet.  The few
tall buildings were symbols of the power of the companies that built them.  The
Imperium chose to display its power by taking up some of the best land in the
city, overlooking the bay.  The building looked very much like an indefensible
structure, but it was anything but.  Made of the strongest of modern materials,
it was all but disaster proof.  A kilometer high seismic wave could crash over
the building and there would be almost no damage.

The aircars
landed on the roof of the building, on a lit landing port where a man in a
business suit and several Imperial Marines waited.  Jensen looked down on the
pad from the front seat of her car, going over what they knew about what the
locals were calling the
Creature
in her head.  Her team was along with
her for the meeting, all except the dolphins, who were being ferried out to the
bay where they could start acclimating themselves to this ocean.  They had been
cooped up in their tanks for too long.  Even the large swimming pool on the
liner was really too small for creatures such as they, and they had been
chomping at the bit to get into real open water.  Local dolphins had been
contracted to help teach them the lay of this ocean, which, though of similar
composition to the waters they were used to, contained some completely
different life forms.

“Please take
your seats, Major,” said the man who had led them to the meeting room, a large
chamber with an entire wall of windows overlooking the city and the bay. 
Lights reflected off the water, while other lights moved under their own power,
patrol boats sounding the waters to make sure nothing was sneaking in that
might cause a catastrophe among the civilians.  “This will be a working dinner
meeting.  I hope all of your people like seafood?  If not, we have steaks, or pork
chops.”

“Seafood will be
just fine,” Jensen told the man, an aide to the Governor.  She knew all of her
people enough to know what they liked, and what they couldn’t stand.  A planet
like New Lemuria would of course have its farms, and it livestock.  But the
main industries on the planet were seafood and tourism, in that order.

A moment later
the Governor came walking into the chamber, his military and police commanders
following.  Jensen and her people were on their feet in an instant in a show of
respect, as much for the former Imperial Marine Colonel that Governor Paul
Frieze had been as for the civilian rank he now held.

“Take your
seats, ladies and gentlemen,” said the Governor, walking to the head of the
table and taking his own chair.  “May I introduce Colonel Isabella Suarez, the
head of the Planetary Militia.”  The small, dark skinned woman nodded and took
her seat.  “And Colonel Neru M’tabasa, Chief of Planetary Police.”  The tall
ebony man also nodded, then slumped his over two meter body into his own chair.

Another door
opened and the Government House wait staff came in, a dozen men and women with
plates of food and bottles of drink.  A large platter of savory food, a lobster
analogue, what looked like a half dozen large shrimp, and some pieces of
different fish, along with potatoes and vegetables, were placed in front of
each person at the table.

“All local
seafood, from the waters of our bay,” said the Governor with pride.  “Not only
is the seafood, and the land animals, compatible with our metabolism, they are
complete in their nutrient composition.  Our dolphins and whales subsist
entirely off of the native ocean life.”

“That’s very
unusual, isn’t it, Mr. Governor?” asked Jensen.  She knew that about half the
terrestrial worlds in known space had life with compatible proteins, which
meant the other half didn’t.  Those that didn’t ranged from having completely
inert and indigestible proteins to deadly poisons, and the incompatibilities
went both ways.  But even compatible planets normally had something missing in
the protein matrix, much less the vitamins.

“Very,” said
Frieze.  “One of the things that made this such an attractive world, even as
far from the plane of the disc as it is.”

The rest of the
room was quiet as the guests went after their food with gusto.  Jensen speared
some of the
lobster
on her fork and dipped it in the melted butter
provided.  She closed her eyes in appreciation as her taste buds savored the
shellfish. 
I could get used to this
, she thought. 
I could even get
fat living in a place like this
.  That last thought brought an internal
laugh.  Very few humans were overweight in this day and age, eight centuries
after the human genome improvement project had worked its magic on the
species.  There were very few overweight humans, and those who were really had
to work at it.

“That’s what
makes this, creature, so unusual,” said Frieze, hesitating for a moment in
raising a forkful of fish to his mouth.  “From the much degraded cell samples
we have, what few of them there are, they seem to be an entirely different form
of life from what we find over the surface and shallow seas of the planet.  My
biologists tell me they’re unlike any other life form known.  Almost like it
really isn’t alive, but is some kind of mix of machine and biological”

“And where do
you think they’ve been hiding all these years?” asked Sergeant Billings, the
teams biological specialist.  “And how long have people been on this planet?”

“First
exploration team landed forty-seven years ago,” answered the Governor.  “The
first colonists landed five years after that, so forty-two years of continuous
human habitation.”

“And no strange
disappearances in that entire time?” asked Master Sergeant Kama, who had the
most actual investigative experience on the team.

“This is a wild
world,” said Frieze, shaking his head.  “And a world with a lot of unexplored
regions to this day.  Of course there have been unsolved disappearances. 
People go out in small craft and never return.  Or into one of the land
wilderness areas with the same result.  But nothing like large vessels or
entire villages taken by something we’ve never seen before.”

“And the
majority of these incidents have occurred in or near to deep water?” asked
Jensen, searching through the colony database through her implant.

“That is
correct,” replied the Governor.  “About eighty percent of the attacks and
disappearances have occurred over the Deep.  There really aren’t that many
pleasure craft or fishing boats over that much water.  The fish are mostly in
the shallow seas, and most of the sailing ships prefer cruising among the
islands, where they can shelter in bad weather.  And that weather occurs most
often over the Deep as well, where they can build up over the open water.”

“So most of the
coastal attacks occurred on, what is it called, Mu?”

“That’s correct,
Major,” said Colonel M’tabasa, reaching for his wine glass.   “We have one
documented attack on one of the smaller islands on the edge of the shelf, as
well as some disappearances at sea, also near the edge of the Deep.”

“And we are,
what, about three hundred kilometers from the Deep?”

“That’s about
right.  So far there have been no attacks this far from the Deep.  And we think
whatever this thing, or things, are, doesn’t like to move through shallow
water.”

“How far down
have you explored this Deep?” asked Kama.

“We’ve sent
submersibles as far down as thirty kilometers,” answered M’tabasa, pulling up a
holo of the planet that showed the hemisphere that was almost all deep water,
with the exception of Mu.  “And of course not through the entire area.  There’s
just too much of it, and we only have a couple of deep diving vehicles.”

“And how deep is
this Deep?” asked Kama.

“Twenty-five
kilometers at its shallowest point.  That’s about twenty percent of the Deep,
the area closest to the shallows and Mu.  At its furthest, a hundred
kilometers, maybe a little more.”

“And what is the
maximum depth your submersibles can reach”

“Thirty-two
kilometers, but due to safety concerns we have instated a thirty kilometer
limit.”

“What’s the
limit of the submersible you brought with you, Major?” asked Frieze.

“We can go as
deep as fifty kilometers, Governor.  If we push it, maybe fifty-four.  So
there’s no way we’re going to get down into the deepest parts of your ocean.”

“I still don’t understand
why they sent you, Major,” said Colonel Suarez, giving Jensen a cold stare. 
“We have a very good planetary police force.  We didn’t need more police.  What
we need are military forces specializing in underwater combat.  Instead, they
send us you, and the few people you brought with you, and one goddamn submarine
that can’t even go where it needs to go.”

“That will be
enough, Colonel Suarez,” growled the Governor.  He looked over at Jensen, his
face red with embarrassment.  “I’m happy you’re here, Major.  From what I
understand, you are ocean world specialists.  And I will leave it to you to
find out what this thing is, and learn how we can stop it.”  He looked back at
his Commander of Police, his face a mask of anger.  “And you will do everything
that the Major asks of you.”

“The Major..”

“Is from the
Imperial Constabulary, and therefor is in charge here,” yelled Frieze, slamming
the palm of his hand on the table.  “And you will follow her orders, unless you
want to take an early retirement from your position.”

Suarez looked at
the Governor with a shocked expression, her mouth moving but no words coming
out.  Jensen could almost feel sorry for her, but she remembered all the many
times she had had to deal with shitheads who thought they were so important. 
She knew her training and equipment were better than anything any planetary
police force, especially on the frontier, had.  And the same went for her
people.

“We’ll head out
in the morning, Governor, and scout the area near this latest incident,” she
told Frieze.  “That will give my dolphins the chance to acclimate a little more
to your ocean.”  It probably wouldn’t take them longer than overnight, since
the salinity and chemical composition of these waters was similar to New
Tahiti, where they had been stationed.

“Then let us
enjoy our meal, Major,” said Frieze, waving for the steward to bring in the
next course.  “And maybe you can tell us a little bit about what’s going on in
the Empire.”

When they walked
from the Government house and headed for the quarters that had been given them
down by the harbor, the planet had rotated to the point where the Perseus Arm
took up most of the night sky.  Jensen stopped for a moment and looked up at
the sight, considering that this might be a good world on which to retire.  Far
from the war, with plenty of room to expand.  The only negative was an unknown
creature that attacked and apparently ate people.