Project U.L.F. (20 page)

Wyatt looked away. It bothered him that Kit knew him so well. That he knew that Wyatt was duty-bound to protect them.

He stood and wandered around the other side of the ship, leaving Kit to his own company. He had dealt with enough already today. He could do without this conversation right now, especially given the frame of mind Kit was in. He found Bobby comforting Kate, who too was crying, still mourning the loss of Alex.

“Get her out of here, will you?” he asked.

Kate looked up, pale streaks on her dirtied face betraying the tracks of her tears. “Do you have no feelings at all?” she asked, frowning at him.

Bobby grasped her arm. “Er…Kate, don’t you think…”

“No, Bobby, I’m sick of it!” Kate shouted, standing and shrugging off the hand. “I’m not putting up with it any more! All through this trip I’ve been patronized, and…and now, just because I’m crying…because someone happens to have been
killed!
” She almost screamed the last word, “What…? That’s somehow a problem for you, is it? Well I won’t have it! Someone died out there today!” she choked, her eyes filling again, “Or didn’t you notice that?”

“Yeah. I noticed that,” Wyatt said quietly. He stopped and thought for a moment. Then he exploded. “And yes, I do have feelings! I’ve seen more people die than you can begin to imagine, and all of them friends or colleagues of mine. The reasons behind their deaths are numerous. Incompetence on their own or someone else’s part; accidents; foolishness—like today—but whatever the reason, it never gets easier. It never gets easy to say goodbye. You just get hardened to it and you distance yourself from people so you never have to get close, so you never get hurt from losing someone, because you never know if tomorrow is going to be your or their last day. You think I don’t care?” he pointed accusingly at her, “God forbid there should ever come a day when I don’t care.” He was exasperated at the mere suggestion. “My main priority is the safety of my team and getting us all back home. Alex was out of line and paid the ultimate price. I can’t be responsible for his death. Now I don’t care who you are back on Earth but we’re not here to cater to your every need.”

“Well, do you think I asked to be dumped in this hell hole?” Kate shouted at him.

Wyatt was taken aback by her ferocity. It was the first time he had seen her mad. No, not just mad, really pissed off.

“If I’d known this is routine I’d never have come!”

“Well do you think we asked to have you…” Wyatt began, and then he stopped, finally registering what she had said. “Wha…? What do you mean, ‘routine?’ What are you talking about?” Wyatt asked, the puzzlement dissipating his anger.

“Well this is a routine mission,” Kate said, calming, wiping away a tear with the back of a shaking hand. “That’s why I was assigned to it. Because it would be safe. Alan Chambers, a friend of yours, I believe, checked out all the details. He put me on your crew. He also said you’d look after me.” She spat out the last sentence as though it were worthless.

Wyatt nodded in recognition of Alan’s name. He stood, thoughtful for a moment. “If Alan checked out the details, do you have any idea where this ‘routine’ mission was supposed to be going?” he asked her.

“Ionen Prime.”

Wyatt laughed. It was wicked. Mocking.

“What’s so funny?” Kate demanded.

“Does this look like Ionen Prime to you?” he said.

“How the fucking hell should I know!” Kate yelled, her temper flaring again.

She had a point.

*
  
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*

Wyatt ran through the darkened labyrinth of the
Santa Maria
’s corridors. He had instructed Bobby to drop Kate off at the mess room, see that she was comfortable and then meet him on the bridge.

The doors to the bridge slid away and he stormed through, going straight to one of the many consoles on the wall. “Where are we, Computer?” Wyatt asked.

“The
Santa Maria
is situated on a ridge…”

“No!” Wyatt interrupted, impatient. “I mean which planet are we on?”

“We are on a planet 2.7 light years beyond Centari Red 603. Star system is unclassified. Planet is of an undesignated type.” It was a standard reply for a U.L.F. expedition. Lots of unknowns.

“Okay,” Wyatt said. “Tell me about life support and fuel systems.”

“The
Santa Maria
has enough provisions on board to support a crew of eight for one month outside of cryosleep. Generator power currently at six per cent. Solid fuel levels minimal.”

Wyatt stopped, stupefied. “Repeat the fuel stats again,” he said.

“Generator power six per cent. Solid fuel levels minimal,” the reply came with the same cold objectivity.

The horrifying realization hit him hard. His knees buckled and he clambered his way over to a chair, pulling himself onto it. He had guessed as much from what Kate had said but he had pushed that possibility to the back of his mind, not wanting to believe it. Now, though, the facts behind the frightening truth were revealed—they did not have enough power to get home.

Suddenly, all the pieces fell into place. Mannheim was behind it all. That was why there had been no red tape, why the mission had been organized and launched so quickly. That was why Wyatt had been told not to go into work that week, so he would not talk to anyone about it, arouse suspicion. That was why Robert had shadowed him at the moon-base, why he was not given a minute alone with anyone. That was why they had been given the
Santa Maria
, an old ship that would soon be scrapped anyway. He thought back to the day’s earlier episode and the instant when Kit’s weapon jammed. They had probably been sent away with a load of old, faulty equipment as well. That was why he had never met his mixed-up team. If you were going to send someone to his doom, why not send others that you wanted to get rid of with him? All the signs were there and he had overlooked each and every one of them.

Wyatt held his head in his hands.
What a fool I’ve been
, he thought.
Caught up in a trap far more elaborate than I’m used to using.

“Computer, given our original generator power, which destinations could we have made a return trip to from the moon-base?”

“Numerous destinations. Specify.”

“Ionen Prime, for example?”

“Affirmative.”

Clever, Wyatt thought. The whole thing had been billed as a mission to Ionen Prime and on paper had looked exactly like that. No one had suspected a thing.

His thoughts went to the others then. Why had they all been sent with him to face certain death? Bobby and Byron were very good friends of his and would back him in anything, perhaps Mannheim saw them as banner bearers for Wyatt’s cause, equally as dangerous to him as Wyatt himself. Byron was also an old-timer and getting near retirement age. It would save the IZP a whole load of money to do away with him. Could Mannheim be that heartless? Probably.

Kit? Well, who wouldn’t want to be rid of Kit? Alex? With no ULF experience at all he would be no great loss. He was expendable. Probably picked at random from this year’s qualifying trappers. Chris, like Byron, would be costing the department money, but in a different sense. If he had failed his trapping exams and was still around the IZP then that probably meant he was intending to re-apply. It wasn’t cheap to train a new recruit. Chris was a victim of his own failure. Par? Par was a mystery. Maybe that was the whole point of him being there. To sow the seed of doubt should Wyatt find out the truth. If there was no reason to send Par away, then why was he there? Maybe they hadn’t been set up after all.

And Kate. Poor Kate. A victim of circumstance and Alan’s good will. Wyatt’s heart went out to her now. He had to get them home. If not for himself, then for the rest of his team, and if not for his team, then for her alone. But how?

The
Santa Maria
, being an old ship, had not been fitted with a transmitting radio beacon, so there was no way she would be detected by a passing craft,
but
, the old ships did have their own signaling devices.

They were fitted with small probes which could be fired out of the roof of the craft and launched through the upper atmosphere, into a stationary orbit above the planet’s surface. From there they would begin transmitting a distress signal, indicating the ship’s presence on the planet and pinpointing its location. It was the next best thing.

“Launch distress probe,” Wyatt ordered, hurriedly checking instruments and displays.

“Negative,” came the reply.

Wyatt stopped. “Negative? What do you mean negative? That’s an order!”

“Negative. Cannot launch probe.”

“Why not?”

“No probe to launch.”

Christ
,
they’ve even stripped the probe out of the ship.

“Shit!” he shouted, slamming both fists down on the console in front of him. As he did so, Bobby walked through the doors behind him. She rushed over to him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

“Wyatt, what’s wrong?”

He swung his chair around to face her. His face was inches from hers.

“We’ve been dumped, Bobby. Drop-kicked into oblivion.”

She laughed half-heartedly at the absurdity of what he was saying, and then, when the humor was not reciprocated, her face dropped. “What? What do you mean?” she said, frowning.

“I mean we’ve been sent away to die.”

“What! By who? Mannheim?”

“The Devil,” he said.

CHAPTER

9

Wyatt broke the news to the rest of the team the following morning before they suited up.

“You’re shitting me, right?” It was Chris. “Tell me this is all some sick joke.”

“I wish I was,” Wyatt said. “But our fuel levels are minimal. We simply don’t have enough power to get home.”

“There must be some mistake,” Byron said. “Have you checked to be sure the computer isn’t malfunctioning? It is an old ship.”

Wyatt gave his friend an old-fashioned look. “Do you think I wouldn’t have thought of that? I’ve run a level three diagnostic on all operational systems. The computer checks out okay. This is the only other explanation.”

He continued to relate to them all the facts he knew. The way he had been treated since the mission’s inception. The details that had been conveniently left out. The probe missing from the ship. It made for a convincing argument. If any of them were still in any doubt about the real truth, they were swayed when Wyatt recounted what he believed to be the mission brief, that of the trip being part of the IZP’s anniversary celebrations. None of the others had even heard of this; they believed it was a standard U.L.F. expedition. When he finished, the others all looked at him in silence.

“Well?” he said. “Does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Suggestions for what?” Kit asked. “If what you are saying is true then the only thing we can do is sit and wait for our supplies to run out. Then we die. Humph! The rookie was the lucky one.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Kate snapped. Kit glared at her.

“Stop it! Both of you! I asked for suggestions, not an argument.”

“There must be something we can do.” Kate added.

“She’s right,” Chris said. “We must be able to do something. We can’t just give up.”

“I suggest to begin with, we let the animals go,” Bobby said. “It’s pointless keeping them knowing what we know now and it’ll give us time to think. Right now we’re all reeling with the news. I think it’ll focus our minds…calm us down a little.”

Others muttered their agreement. Wyatt nodded in appreciation of the sensible suggestion. Bobby had come through for him again.

*
  
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They collected their weapons and Wyatt voiced his fear of the equipment being faulty too. They decided to check their guns. The quad-sys guns were so called because they had four firing systems: they could be a semi-automatic rifle interchangeable with a flame-thrower, the change made by simply rotating the barrel, they could be a grenade launcher or they could fire nets like the one Wyatt had used the previous day.

Of the rifles, Bobby’s, Byron’s and Par’s were fully functional, Kit’s consistently jammed after he had fired off five rounds and Wyatt’s would not fire at all, some damage near the clip insert site preventing the bullets being loaded into the firing chamber. Byron, Par and Wyatt already knew that their flame-throwers worked, they had all had cause to use them since arriving, but neither Bobby’s nor Kit’s would fire, even though both of their weapons had full reservoirs of gas mounted on their tops.

All five weapons would fire the nets that Wyatt had used so effectively yesterday, but since their guns would only be used for defense in the foreseeable future, this knowledge was not particularly helpful or encouraging.

They did not check their grenade launchers since it was assumed that if there was a problem with them, then it would be unlikely that the weapons would still be intact. If an armed grenade got jammed in the barrel, then the weapon and its wielder would not be around to pay testimony to the fault, both being wiped out in the resulting explosion. Also, the grenades were in short supply and Wyatt was loath to waste five of them just checking the firing mechanisms of their guns. They decided that in the unlikely event that a grenade needed to be used, either Byron or Kit, both of whose grenade launchers had been demonstrated to be in working order, would fire it.

*
  
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*

Most of the animals they released in the near vicinity of the
Santa Maria
, bringing them out in cages, opening one side and retreating to a safe distance. Some needed coaxing out, but most took a tentative step out of the cage, sniffed the air once, and then, realizing they were free, raced off into the nearby trees and disappeared.

A team of four, including Chris, took the amphibians back to the habitat they had been taken from. Wyatt stayed behind to think on their predicament. Kit would not go on principle. When asked if he wanted to be in the away team he had said, “Just giving those slugs their freedom back ain’t gonna make me feel better. It don’t change the fact that we’re gonna die.” Nobody argued with him. They just took that as a no.

*
  
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Wyatt was on the bridge poring over displays of the ship when he heard the door hiss open behind him. He turned to find Kate standing in the opening. She was clearly nervous, standing awkwardly.

“Um…Sorry to interrupt. I…I…would have knocked but…” she turned to look back at the door, “…it kinda opened before I got the chance.” Wyatt smiled in sympathetic understanding. Kate waited for a moment, expecting him to say something, but he remained silent. “Well,” she said suddenly. “I was down near the holding pens and it seems the others have overlooked one of the acquisitions.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, the one you caught yesterday. Brown hair, long fluffy tail, big golden eyes,” she blurted. “For some reason it was put in a pen well away from the other animals.”

Wyatt raised his eyebrows at the news. Although there was nothing particularly unusual about that.

“The point is,” Kate added hurriedly, “that it hasn’t been released and I was wondering if it should have been.”

“Yes, as far as I’m aware it should have been. You can do it now if you like. It’s a pretty harmless soul, as far as I can tell, but be careful all the same.”

Kate nodded. “Okay,” she said, but she did not move away from the spot.

“Okay,” Wyatt agreed. He swung his chair back to face the console, skimming his eyes over the ship’s blueprints once more but taking very little notice of them, acutely aware that Kate had not left.

He swung his chair back to face her once more. She was biting her bottom lip and gazing at the floor off to her left, deep in thought about something. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused.

“Was there something else?” Wyatt asked.

Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice. “Um…er…no. I mean, er, yes. Yes, there was. I just, er…I just wanted to say I was sorry for what I said yesterday.” Her eyes dropped. “I…I understand now,” she added quietly. Then she turned and was gone.

“I…” Wyatt began, raising a hand to catch Kate’s attention, but the doors had closed behind her. He let the hand drop and turned back to the console, putting his elbows on the flat surface in front of him and rubbing his face with his hands, thinking.

In hindsight, he
had
treated her badly, but that was only because there could be no margin for error. She had to comply with the rules or else she was putting herself and possibly others in danger. At the end of the day, he had her own best interests at heart, but thinking about it, it probably did not appear that way to her.
And I didn’t even get a chance to explain. To apologize,
he thought.

He wiped the screen with a touch and then went after her.

*
  
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“Come on,” she said. “Look what I’ve got here for you.” Kate was crouched in the doorway of the holding pen, holding some Ickayub roots toward the animal in an outstretched hand. “Come on,” she said again. “You like these.”

The animal was curled up on the floor in the far corner of the cage, motionless. At the sound of her voice, it looked at her, the two golden eyes appearing over the long tail, wrapped around its body like a scarf. “Come on,” Kate said again. The animal did nothing, the eyes just blinked sleepily at her.

Kate made to move into the cage, to check that the animal was all right. Swiftly, it uncurled itself and ran across the floor in a series of quick, tiny jumps. It leapt onto her arm and ran up behind her head, sitting itself across her shoulders. Kate turned her head to look at it. “There you go,” she said. “That wasn’t so bad, was it now?” The animal just looked at her. It sniffed her hair and then her cheek and then began to lick her. Kate laughed. “Come on,” she said. “Much as I hate to, I have to let you go.” She turned out of the pen and down the corridor, then down the entry ramp, out of the gloom and into the blinding sunlight.

Wyatt arrived at the bay area just in time to catch a glimpse of Kate as she walked out of the ship. He walked down to the entry ramp and was just about to follow her out when he stopped himself. He stayed in the shadows and watched her as she walked away.

About fifty yards from the ship, Kate stopped and seated herself on a felled trunk, a victim of the landing. She held out the Ickayub roots in her hand and the creature crawled down from her shoulders to sit on her lap and pick at them. She looked at the nearby trees and then down at the small bundle of brown fur contentedly feeding. “You’re going home,” she said quietly to it. The animal stopped and looked at her, the huge eyes blinking slowly, no hint of comprehension there. “I don’t suppose you know who your parents are, do you?” she asked, looking out at the forest vacantly. “I guess in a way you’re quite lucky.”

Suddenly, the implications of their predicament hit her. Maybe because in some way she identified with this small animal, however alien it was. Like her, it had been taken away from its home and had no idea when it was going back, even if it was going back. The truth she had suppressed all day, the facts she had tried not to believe, to ignore, suddenly surfaced.

“Dad,” she whispered, and then she began to cry. A tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto the creature’s nose, surprising it. It looked up at her and then darted back up her arm, running backwards and forwards across her shoulders. It seemed the animal was becoming agitated because Kate was upset. It sensed that something was wrong.

“This will never do,” Kate muttered to herself. She threw the remaining roots away and then wiped her face with the back of a hand. She took a deep breath and composed herself and then turned her attention to the acquisition. “Hey, hey!” she said. “Shhhh. Calm down, it’s okay, it’s okay.” When the animal had calmed, she added, “Come on. Let’s take you home.”

She stood and wandered over to the trees. When she reached them she picked the animal off her shoulders and placed it on the nearest tree. It clasped the trunk and looked at her. “Go on,” she said. “You’re free! Go!” The animal did nothing, just looked at her with those huge doleful eyes.

“Go on…go!” she said again. Again, nothing.

Kate sighed, shrugged her shoulders, then reluctantly turned and began to walk away from the trees. She had gone about five yards when the creature leaped on to her back. “Hey!” she laughed. “You’re not supposed to come back with me. You’re free. You’re supposed to go home.”

She walked back to the tree and put the animal back. “Now stay,” she said, pointing a finger at it. This time she backed away until she was about ten yards from the animal, then she turned and headed back to the ship. Almost immediately, the creature landed on her back again.