The Agathon: Book One (26 page)

“You sent her out there!” she said, her eyes lit from the inside out, opening her mind to her father’s. “You could have saved her and you didn’t! Don’t you dare lecture me on my responsibilities!” Her father dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his head. Sparks from the electricity coming from Carrie’s hands ignited a small fire next to a computer console that had been cut in half by the force of the energy.

“Carrie, stop!” her father screamed in her mind, before repeating it aloud. The power of their link was strong, as both their anger and pain met in waves of memories. She showed her father how angry she remained at him for not protecting her mother. For not destroying The Black as soon as he had known of its lethal abilities, but above all of that, for not understanding her pain.

Now she felt something else. Fear. Her father was now afraid. The rage suddenly disappeared as she let go of the feelings and collapsed onto the deck sobbing. The room went dark as they both lay on the floor. Her father crawled over to her and placed a warm hand on her wet cheek. She looked up and caught a reflection of her glowing eyes in those of her father. She lowered her head and continued to cry.

“I’m sorry,” she said through the haze of tears. She placed a cold hand on his, which remained firmly on her cheek. They stayed in the moment as she let him take a few minutes to absorb what had just happened. He eventually took his hand off her face and looked around at the broken equipment and singed metal.

“Okay,” he finally said. “So clearly we have some things to talk about, Dice.” She looked at his smiling face and she felt a love that transcended anything she had felt before. She looked around and couldn’t help releasing a laugh.

“I mean…” he paused and looked around, raising his arms, then joined her in the laugh. “Jesus!”

20

T
he Forest

14:44 Martian Standard

“I
don’t think that will be necessary, Lieutenant,” Young said to Chavel as they walked across the rocky surface towards the approaching tree line. He was looking at the pulse rifle strapped to Chavel’s shoulder.

“Captain’s orders, Mr Young,” he replied.

“Damn right,” said Meridian, who was leading up the rear.

“I don’t want to be eaten by some
six
-armed reptilian alien dinosaur, thank you very much,” she said, half joking and half not. Llewellyn was walking steadily in front of her. Her short hair was neatly placed behind her ears and she was looking directly ahead at the upcoming foliage. She looked tense. Young had his arms outstretched and had his hands clasped tightly around a scanner, which was making light chirping noises.

“I would have thought Tyrell would have been on our little expedition, no?” Chavel said to Young.

“Barrington told him to set up the astronomical array, so that we could get a fix on our position. Tosh is helping, so we’re a little
short
-staffed on explorers at the moment,” he responded, not looking up from the scanner.

“Anything?” asked Meridian from the rear. Young sighed.

“Not yet, Doctor.”

“This air tastes funny,” said Llewellyn quietly. Meridian placed a hand on her arm.

“The CO
2
is a little higher than that on the ship, Amanda. There’s also higher levels of methane. Could be connected to the colours of the trees up there. It ain’t a perfect world, but we should be able to breathe it without any major problems.” Llewellyn smiled at Meridian and nodded. She was also equipped with a pulse rifle and had one hand placed on the butt of it at all times.

“Everyone quiet,” said Young abruptly. He stopped mid stride and looked at the scanner.

“I have movement,” he said. Chavel was standing next to him looking at the readings on the scanner.

“It’s gone,” he said.

“What do you mean, it’s gone?” said Meridian with a hint of nervousness in her tone. Young didn’t answer

“What’s gone?” said Meridian. “Mr Young, as much as I admire your former position of leader of the planet Earth, I think you need to work on your communications skills.”

Young straightened his back and raised an eyebrow to Meridian. Chavel did the same. Young smiled at Meridian and presented the scanner for her input.

“Doctor Meridian, you don’t appear to be the most patient of people, are you?” he said, smiling.

“Hit the nail on the head, Jerome,” she said, slapping his arm. “Now let’s take a look,” she said.

“There was definite movement about fifty meters in that direction,” Young said, pointing his hand towards inside the forest.

“Could have been trees?” said Chavel.

“It was traveling at speed in this direction and then just stopped as soon as we did,” he said. Meridian looked at the scanner and reviewed the readings. The screen showed an overlay of the terrain up to one hundred meters and a distinctive purple blob indicating a moving contact travelling in their direction.

“You’re spot on, Mr Young,” she said, looking at him.

“Care to take point?” he said, gesturing for her to take the lead. The look on her face brought a little smile to Young’s face.

“I live to serve,” she said mockingly and began walking in front with the scanner. Chavel unhooked his rifle and let it hang loosely in his arms, with the strap slung over his shoulder. Llewellyn followed suit. As they reached the edge of the forest they began to see how dense the interior was. It was dark. The trees were fifty to sixty foot tall, with a canopy of thick blue leaves. They resembled shorter versions of redwoods back on Earth.

“The bark is strange,” said Chavel, placing his hand on the base of one of them. Meridian brought over the scanner and ran it up and down the length of the tree.

“It’s not bark,” she said. It was completely smooth and cold.

“Feels metallic,” said Chavel. Young ran his hands over the surface of the trees and frowned.

“It is metallic!” said Meridian. They all looked at her.

“Look,” she said, handing the scanner to Young. He looked at the readings.

“Try another one,” Young said. They walked into the forest and scanned again.

“It’s definitely not organic,” Meridian said.

“I don’t get it,” said Chavel. “So you’re saying that these are not trees?” he said.

“Because they look like trees.” Young looked skyward at the leaves.

“Made to look like trees,” Chavel said.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t register with any of the known alloys. The crystal structure is akin to titanium but it looks much harder,” said Meridian.

Young looked deeper into the forest. “A forest of metallic trees?” he said.

“What do we do here?” Chavel asked. They all looked at Young.

“Drop a beacon here and let’s head in,” he said. Chavel nodded and dropped a locator beacon into the ground. It began flashing, relaying the positional data to all their wrist displays.

“Okay, let’s stay close,” Chavel said to everyone. They moved further into the dense forest. The sound of the air skimming across the surface of the trees was creating a soft whistle as they moved through.

“There are no flowers,” said Meridian, looking at the ground as they walked. They all turned their attention to the forest floor.

“The ground is smooth,” she continued. Young stopped and ran his hand over its surface. It was smooth. There was no debris or soil. No sign of vegetation or fallen leaves.

“It’s like the whole thing is a recreation or reconstruction,” said Chavel.

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Meridian. “Great minds and all that.” Young remained silent.

“There’s a clearing about twenty meters up ahead,” Meridian said. They followed her lead. Llewellyn had her weapon fully drawn at this stage and was holding it tightly in her hands. She remained calm, but her eyes moved quickly around the surrounding area.

“Easy,” Chavel said to her, noticing her tense movements. She nodded and took a deep breath. They emerged from the forest into a clearing encircled entirely by the tall blue metallic trees. The overhead sun cast its shadow on a calm and dark watered lake. Small ripples pulsated slowly towards its shorelines. The group of humans stood looking out over the calm scene. Meridian held up the scanner and began taking readings.

“H
2
O,” she said. “Hang on, I have movement,” she said. “Over there.” She pointed across the calm lake to the far shoreline. A large
snake
-like creature emerged from the water. It was too far away to make out exactly what it was, but it seemed to slither organically out of the water.

“What the hell is that?” said Young.

“Chase?” said Chavel, with his weapon raised.

“Take it easy,” she said, trying to calm the situation. Llewellyn had followed Chavel’s lead and had her weapon aimed at the creature, which was still emerging from the water, as it glided into the forest. After a few seconds the tail of the creature disappeared into the darkness and the last of the ripples from the lake began to settle next to the group.

“Whatever it was, it was huge,” Meridian said.

“I’m not picking up any organic life signs, but it was over fifteen meters in length and, judging by its mass, weighed one point three tons.” The forest was silent. Only the occasional sound of the breeze filtering through the metallic leaves sent eerie quiet whistles across the surface of the lake.

“I don’t like this at all,” said Chavel, scanning the treeline with his rifle.

“I think we should contact the ship,” Llewellyn said.

Young sighed. “You’re probably right.” He reached down and tapped his wrist comp.

“Young to Agathon,” he said, still looking out across the lake. There was no response. He looked at Chavel who raised his arm and activated his own wrist comp.

“Chavel to Barrington,” he said. “Chavel to Boyett.” Still nothing.

“Llewellyn to Agathon,” came the young crewman’s voice, following suit. They all looked at Meridian.

“Okay, I guess it’s my turn,” she said.

“Meridian to anyone who receives this message. We are currently one mile inland, located in a clearing. We have detected what looks like some form of automation in the forest. We are investigating. Meridian out.”

Llewellyn and Chavel looked at her, waiting for a response.

“The dense metal composition of the forest is probably blocking transmission. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Meridian said.

“I think we should go back,” said Chavel. “A drop in communications leaves us cut off if we get into trouble and procedure says we have to abort.” He was looking at Young. He was about to respond when Llewelyn screamed. They looked around and saw the young woman being dragged into the forest by an enormous black snake. It had what looked like a sucker clamped firmly on both of her legs and was pulling her at speed into the darkness.

“Amanda,” Chavel shouted, as he lunged into a sprint towards her. She was on her back and screaming for help. She fired one shot from her pulse rifle, which sent a directionless energy beam into the
tree
-tops. The sound of the beam hitting the trees was cold and sharp. It sent sparks sailing towards the forest floor. She looked back towards Chavel and screamed one last time, before disappearing into the darkness. Chavel stopped and fired two compressed pulses at the snake object, before the sound of Llewelyn screaming abruptly ceased. He stopped at the edge of the trees, now panting fiercely. He was about to go after her when Young shouted.

“Wait, Lieutenant,” he said, running up behind him. “Don’t split us up, we’ll all go in.” Chavel looked as if he was about to ignore him and make a break for it when Meridian caught his eye.

“David, don’t be stupid. Whatever that is, it’s bigger and more powerful than any of us.”

“Llewellyn!” Chavel shouted into the forest.

“What does the scanner say?” he said to Meridian. She was looking into the trees and she seemed to be shaking. “Doctor,” said Young. She snapped her eyes down to the scanner and ran a full sweep.

“No signs of movement,” she said.

“None?” said Chavel. Meridian shook her head.

“Try locking onto her wrist comp locator,” said Chavel. Meridian scanned for Llewellyn’s locator.

“Nothing,” she said.

“That’s impossible,” said Young.

“No it’s not,” said Meridian. “If it was destroyed by
something
—” The scanner chirped.

“Movement!” she said. The remaining three stiffened their backs, as Chavel raised his weapon.

“Over there,” she said, pointing to the same part of the lake where the snake object had emerged. A second black snake began to surface and slither its way into the forest.

“Fuck,” said Young suddenly. “Lieutenant?” he said, deferring the next decision to Chavel.

“Everyone follow me,” said Chavel, taking control of the situation. “We run. Understand? Do not stop until I say so. Stay close. Chase, you follow me. Let’s get the hell out of here. Go. Go. Go!” he said, turning and running into the forest. Young and Meridian followed quickly behind. Young was able to keep up easily and Meridian followed up in the rear. The trio ran steadily through the dense array of metallic trees. Chavel kept a steady pace, keeping his weapon held firmly in front of him.

“Movement!” shouted Meridian. “Twenty meters to our rear and closing,” she shouted, struggling to catch her breath.

“Keep moving,” shouted Chavel.

“How far to exit?”

“Quarter mile,” answered Meridian.

“Object now fifteen meters to the rear,” she said.

“Okay listen to me, both of you,” said Chavel.

“No matter what happens, keep running. That is an order. Understood?” he said.

“What are you doing?” said Young. Chavel suddenly stopped and turned, raising his weapon.

“David!” shouted Meridian.

“Don’t stop,” he shouted at the pair. He began firing his weapon into the forest.

“Get out of here!” he screamed at them.

“Come on!” shouted Young, grabbing Meridian as she began to slow down. The pair turned and silently began to speed up. Chavel knelt on one knee, checked his power settings and opened fire at the large black snake that was coming straight for him.

Goodbye, Carrie
, he thought to himself.

Engine room

15:33 Martian Standard

“Got it!” Said Emerson triumphantly, as he sealed the last power relay behind the console. The lights blasted on as the hum of the power systems began to flow through the walls of the deck.

“Life support back online. Nice work,” said Tosh, who was monitoring the power flow through The Betty as its standby power systems began to come back to life.

“Now, can you do me a huge favour?” he said, watching Emerson as he climbed down the runner to the engine room floor. He jumped the last few feet and landed squarely next to Tosh.

“What’s that, handsome?” he said, slapping his shoulder.

“Change your damn clothes and get some sleep. You look like shit and smell like... Well... You get the idea,” he said.

“Be nice, Doc,” came Boyett’s voice from behind Emerson. “Poor fella has been trying to get that relay in place for the last seven hours.”

“Pfft,” snorted Tosh. “Seven hours. It would have only taken me three,” he smiled.

“Yes, well, we can’t all be the great and powerful Oz, can we?” said Emerson, moving over to a control panel.

“Who?” said Boyett.

“Never mind, Charly. Talk to me about the dorsal thruster control.”

“Aye aye,” she said, tipping her head in a mock salute. “The problem we have with the bow dorsal is that it’s buried. The ship wasn’t built for this sort of planetary landing and certainly not without the use of its landing struts. We have to find a way to carve an exhaust channel under the hull, so that the engines can be vented before they blow a hole in the ship,” she said. Emerson began rubbing his eyes. “When is the last time you slept?” she asked him.