Overture (Earth Song) (40 page)

“
Just look at it: a well thought out yet simple plan to bullshit an entire nation while a few dozen use the calm to escape. It’s demonic, it’s unthinkable, and it’s happening as we speak.”

“
That’s all that will get away, a few dozen?”

“
Yes, but I’m going to see we are two of them.”

“
How?”
“I’m working on a plan.” He lifted an eyebrow suspiciously at his bride. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s legal.” He shook his head and climbed on top of her. “You’re incorrigible,” she said as she felt him grow hard against her leg.

“
Let’s enjoy the rest of our honeymoon,” he said and kissed her passionately. “I want to remember this day.” Mindy lay back and sighed. She had no doubt she would remember it, for the rest of her life.

Ft. Eden was alive with activity as the sun came up. The occupants of the installation, now numbering fifteen, were hard at work felling trees and digging holes. Ever since the first team arrived, the Komodo sloths had been an ever increasing threat. Last night as the watch was changing, two of them charged the perimeter and mauled one of the men. He was in the makeshift infirmary, fighting for his life. The morning brought the implementation of a new plan. Under the direction of their engineer, Amanda Broadmoore, they were working feverishly to construct a palisade. “No, no, no!” she yelled at a group of men about to set a sharpened tree into a hole, flat end first. “I told you, five of the twenty footers, then two fifteen, then five more twenties!”

“
What the fuck difference does it make, Amanda?” asked the sergeant, his muscles straining against the huge weight he was helping to move.

“
I’ll tell you what; if you think it would work better there, go ahead and stick it in that hole.” Her look was deadly, and effective.

“
So you want it in that hole over there?”

“
That would be nice,” she said with a big smile. The men grumbled and hoisted the log back on their shoulders to move it down to another hole.

“
Be patient with them, they’re not engineers.” She turned around and shrugged at Lt. Colonel Wilson. “They’re grunts, give them a break.”

“
Sorry, I’m just shook up after last night.”

“
You were on watch before Smith, weren’t you?”

“
Yes sir, it could just as well have been me. I don’t think I would have even gotten a shot off. Smith killed one before the other one reached him.”

“
You don’t know that until it happens.”

“
I want you to take me off of watch until the palisade is finished.”

“
Not going to happen. We’re a man down now and everyone is dead tired. You’re doing the least amount of physical labor, not that I’m complaining. It wouldn’t do any good to have the architect of our defenses hurt moving a log, but you’re the freshest among us. It would be poor judgment on my part to allow you to stand down.”

“
I see.”

“
Fear not, Amanda, I have more faith in you than you have in yourself. Is there any word from our good doctor?”

“
Nothing, not a peep. He’s been out there for three days, all alone. He’s probably dead.”

“
Like I said at the time, it’s a bad command decision to let him go.”

“
Didn’t seem to stop him.”

“
Eggheads often don’t listen to orders. He spouted all kinds of shit about more diverse biological data and geological samplings.”

“
Makes sense on a scientific footing.”

“
Not on a hostile planet. Once we have a few dozen more people trained to defend themselves
then
I would have cut loose a couple of soldiers to escort him while he ran around collecting dirt and shit.” Out in the woods there was a resounding roar. On top of a sentry tower completed just that morning, a man raised his field glasses.

“
A pair mating about a kilometer away,” he yelled. Everyone relaxed. The sloths had one mating season and it seemed to last all year. Amanda hadn’t had a chance to read Dr. Gibson’s sloth autopsy report. She’d poked her head in once and asked a couple of questions, but he’d been so preoccupied that she gave up and left.

“
We need a better way of dealing with those beasts than killing them. How well will the palisade work?”

“
It should do fine. I’ve examined a few dozen of Gibson’s photos of the trees the sloths mark during territorial disputes. They don’t seem to have the strength to dig through a tree of more than two feet in diameter.”

“
Then why all the effort to move these three-foot trees?”

“
Safety margin, same reason we start on a stockade once the palisade is done. Two levels of defense. Even if the lizards get in we can fall back to regroup. At least they can’t climb.”

“
Certain of that?”

“
Yes. They are aptly named. The Komodo dragons on Earth are quite similar. Long lizard with somewhat short limbs and little vertical flexibility of the spine. They find it incredibly difficult to jump. Even if they could, they would probably die if they fell.”

“
And the spikes on the other side?”

“
Again, redundancy. We’ve only been here a couple weeks, who’s to say if there are other nasty critters out there?”

“
Seems a lot of work without a decent recon.” Wilson looked down at his watch and scratched his head. He had been up early this morning for a scheduled arrival from Earth that had never materialized. They were at a critical junction at Ft. Eden. Without regular resupply of food and ammo, the jungle would reclaim their tiny fort in a short period of time. Between the sloths, howlers, golden moss and scrubbers, he doubted there would be much left inside of a week.

“
Supply report,” one of his men said and handed him a Blackberry. He looked it over and made a couple of notes before returning it.

“
How long can we hold out without more supplies from Earth?” Amanda asked, reading his mind.

“
That depends on the local wildlife,” he replied. “If we have to fight nightly skirmishes with the sloths, a week or so. If not, then it’s up to the food. Water we have no problem with since the new filters are installed, but food is another issue entirely. Aside from some sloth burgers we haven’t explored the plant life.”

“
And with Gibson gone we won’t have a pronouncement any time soon on the edibility of the flora. We can’t even practice planting Earth plants. The twit didn’t start working on the greenhouses he brought before rushing off to God knows where. Unfortunately, it really is typical behavior of an honest-to-goodness scientist. He saw some interesting phenomenon and had to run off and verify it.”

“
If he wasn’t so important I’d have him locked up in that new stockade you’re building when he gets back.”

She
turned and pretended to watch the men installing poles for a while. “I’ll see what I can do with some basic tests if you can get me a couple volunteers.”

“
What are you going to do to my men?”

“
Oh, nothing to worry about. Right out of the Boy Scout manual, really. Take a bite with a canteen of water, wait an hour and if nothing happens take another bite and wait two hours, if nothing else, wait three more and have several more bites. Wait until the next day and if you’re fine, it’s chow time.”

“
Sounds like basic commando field survival, but we were told this alien plant life could be lethal.”

“
It could, but there are almost no plants on Earth that can kill you with a few mouthfuls.”

“
This isn’t Earth.”

“
Good point. Well, I guess we wait for a while before trying that one then.” Wilson nodded his head and they went back to work.

Late
in the afternoon, she was inspecting the placement of the last poles of the palisade. Everything looked better than she had hoped. Only the lone doorway awaited her to figure out how to make it work. Amanda walked over to the twenty-foot wide opening and began making some drawings in the dirt when the sound of running feet made her look up. Racing toward the opening was none other than the previously missing Dr. Gibson.

“
If there is a door to this thing you better close it,” he said as he ran for the main building. He was somewhat tattered and looked like he needed a shower. There was no sign of the weapon he’d left with and his standard issue military bush hat had been replaced with a hand-woven floppy fedora. It made him look like something out of Robinson Crusoe.  The six men who had been manhandling the main part of the gate into position all watched Gibson run by and laughed. Then one of them looked in the direction he came from and gasped.

“
Look!” he yelled and all eyes turned. There, at the tree line fifty meters away, were at least a dozen Komodo sloths all watching them intently.

“
Quickly, get the gate in place,” Amanda told them.

“
But there’s nothing to hold it,” complained the sergeant in charge.

“
I don’t think they are going to know the difference,” she said and pointed at the now advancing reptiles. “Quick, get the door up!” As the men yelled and sweated against the half ton door she ran toward another group of men who were trimming logs. “I need both of those logs over by the gate, fast!”

“
Why?” asked one of the men as he wiped sweat from his forehead.

“
I don’t have time to explain, just move it, damn it!”

“
Now listen here, Miss Corps of Engineers-” Amanda stopped him by whipping out her sidearm.

“
Are you going to get your ass moving or not?” she growled. All four men’s eyes got big in surprise. When they still didn’t move, she cocked the gun and fired a round into the ground at their feet. “I’ll give you to three,” she said calmly. They never let her get to one. The men quickly got the logs up on their shoulders and jogged toward the gate.

“
Kinda like SFAS,” one of them grumbled.

“
Complete with logs,” another agreed.

“
When I said you’d learn to command, I don’t remember suggesting you threaten them with a gun.” Amanda turned to Wilson with a touch of panic in her eyes.

“
Gibson is back; he brought a couple dozen sloths with him!” Just then, the watchman on the tower blew his electronic whistle. Wilson ran over to the opening in the wall where the men were struggling to put the gate into the deep groove that had been cut for it. More than a dozen Komodo sloths were already lumbering toward them and he could see more boiling out of the woods.

“
Will this gate hold without all the supports you were going to make for it?”

“
We don’t have a choice. Once it’s in place have those men stick the poles into the ground about ten feet out. Lean the blunt ends in against the door and it should hold.

“
Like leaning a chair against a door.”

“
Exactly, but there is nothing to hold the chair in place. I need some hardware,” she said and ran toward the main building.

“
What do we do until you’re back?” he yelled after her.

“
Get a couple ropes, wrap them around the top of the poles and get as many men as you can spare to hold them down!” As she ran into the building she stole a look over her shoulder and saw the gate being boosted into place. That same instant, the monster .50 caliber spoke from the tower. Now they had one less round of ammunition.

In
the twilight of the supply building, she set about turning over crates and boxes looking for what she needed. There were instruments, binoculars, night vision gear, ammunition, seismological charges; just about everything except what she was looking for.

“
What are you doing back there?” The voice made her jump. Amanda squinted in the dark and could see Gibson at the far end where his all but unused work bench was. He had his bulging backpack on the table and was standing in front of it.

“
I could ask you the same question. You brought a real Mongol horde down on our heads, and we could use some help out there. I need the supply box with all the nails and spikes in it.” He put a hand on a box and she realized it was what she was looking for. “Are you building something?”

“
Yeah, a little experiment but it can wait,” he said and handed her the box. “I’ll be in here. If it gets real bad out there, just come and get me.”

“
If it gets bad out there, it won’t be me that will be coming in here to get you.” She ran out into the bright sunshine just as the men finished securing the gate. As she’d instructed, men with ropes were holding the logs down as the gate was hit repeatedly from the outside. Each time the gate shuddered ominously. “I’m coming!” she called and ran as hard as she could.

Before
she reached the gate the .50 caliber spoke twice more. Wilson and a pair of other men were perched on the simple wooden scaffolding that ran around the inside top of the palisades, both watching in wonder as the attack grew in intensity.

“
Better make it quick!” he said and fired a couple bursts from his assault rifle. Roars of pain and fury reverberated off the new wooden walls. There was no time for subtlety; the two trees the men were holding down were tipped at a forty-degree angle. Amanda tucked the toolbox under her arm and ran straight at, then up the side of the pole. She hadn’t done a maneuver like that since basic training. Luckily the log was still covered in rough bark that gave her a good purchase.