Blighted Star (14 page)

Anyway,
the whole thing was without doubt just backwash from the plasma burst at the
quarry. An electro – magnetic pulse like that could do a million weird things
to data systems, things which showed up years later. Yeah, that
had
to
be it.

Jackson’s
boots were coming down the corridor. About fucking time. It’s all yours, and
you’re welcome to it, your Highness…

<><><> 

Grad
woke from sleep to a tremendous rustling in the grass near the pool. The still
night air magnified the sounds until they seemed to be coming from right next
to the tent. Grad could tell from Jim’s stillness that he was awake too, and
listening. He leant across and breathed out the words.

“What
is it?”

“Some
kind of animal. Big.”

“More
than one.”

“Three
at least.”

“Not
human?”

“No.
Breathing wrong.”

Sucking
noises reached them as Grad slid to the opening of the tent and eased out his
head. Across the water from them were two oxen and one horse. The sight left
him dumbfounded for a moment until he remembered the Amish. He was still
surprised, he had thought they were in a totally different area.

“It’s
OK, it’s the Amish.”

They
wriggled out of the tent and went round the lake. There was no sign of the
Amish, and the animals seemed a little skittish, not that either of them wanted
to approach too closely.

Athena’s
voice sounded on both their wrist comms.

“Guys,
are you OK?” Her voice cracked with anxiety, fear even.

“Yeah
Athena. What’s going on? We’ve got the Amish’s cattle here. No sign of the
owners though. Something wrong?” Jim’s eyes met Grad’s.

“Jim,
I want you both to move away from the lake. In fact, get as far as you can from
any water. If you head North West for six kilometres, that should put you as
far away as is feasible for now. I’ll brief you as you go, but go now. Leave
the tent, leave everything, just move.”

They
set off through the grass. As they travelled, Athena told them about the attack
on Heart Lake. About the killing of the whole town. About how all the Traces
had been clustered together and had moved through the night in the direction of
Crescent Waters at a slow pace. At, in fact, about the pace predators dragged
their prey. The whole cluster had ended up in a lake halfway to the threatened
settlement. The hypothesis they were going on was that the town had been
attacked by a large number of predators which had gone undetected. And that
these predators lived in, or at least were associated with, lakes. This was the
best explanation they could come up with, but it might all change. Another
possibility was that it was some human agency at work using stealth tech to
remain undetected. They wouldn’t know until a probe could be adapted to work
underwater, and that called for a major remodelling of the type they’d brought
with them.

For
now, the two of them should hold tight. The frame of the new shuttle was nearly
complete, and the basic systems were hooked on. A flight would be attempted in
the early evening, even if the shuttle would have to fly with much of its
fuselage missing.

By
now they were approaching their new site on a low dome shaped hill from which
they could see a kilometre or so in all directions. Looking back the way they
had come they could see that the animals, obeying some bred – in or implanted
instinct were wandering along the path they had made towards the two men.

<><><> 

Christel
made her way into the canteen and took one of the last available seats. She
looked around, and saw a green uniform passing through the crowd. It was the
distinctive looking redhead from Jackson’s platoon, Christel thought for a
moment, bringing the woman’s name to mind.

“Hey,
Williams, How are you doing? What’s going on?”

“There’s
been some kind of attack. Don’t know the details.” Williams looked down
pointedly at the hand Christel had on her arm.

“Where
was the attack? Was it here?” Christel let go, and the soldier shook her head.

“It
was over in Heart Lake. Look, stay cool, the boss is coming to fill you all in.
I’ve got to go.”

When
Williams had gone, Christel looked round once more. People were conducting
murmured conversations all around the room, but every discussion seemed to end
in a shaking of the head on both sides. It was clear that nobody knew what had
happened. It was also clear that everyone was badly frightened. In the end,
Athena walked into the room, the crowd of people near the door shuffling out of
her way as best they could to give her room. There was complete silence.

Lana
walked over to the hanger and went inside. The sudden contrast between the bright
late afternoon sunlight and the relative dark of the hangar’s shady interior
left her momentarily blind. As her vision returned she became more and more
aware of the pain she still felt throbbing within her skull and the whistling
in her ears. She felt utterly wretched and if it had not been for her anxiety
about the missing settlers, there was no way she would have
attempted
to
fly, never mind test piloting a half – built lashed together monstrosity like
the one which swam into focus in the gloom. The new shuttle had, as yet, no
sides, merely a strong cargo – bearing floor under which had been bolted the
various components needed for flight. The cockpit did at least have a
windscreen so she wouldn’t be exposed to the same howling gale any passengers would
suffer in the framework behind her.

There
was room for ten people at a time, though at a push more could be crammed in,
or could even hang on to the outsides. Where the second pilot would normally
sit, Raoul, the huge South American Sergeant, was bolting into place a twenty
millimetre pulse laser, the most powerful piece of ordnance in the colony and a
grim reminder of the peril they all faced.

She
still found it hard to believe. She had heard the rumours first from Dr Clarke
and had been a little surprised at the gullibility she thought it revealed.
Invisible lake monsters indeed! But then came more and more detail on the
missing people from Heart Lake … There was still no link established and it
looked less and less like a problem with the monitoring system. She supposed
they would know soon enough. In the meantime she was just
not
going to
assume the worst.

Jackson
entered, followed by the rest of the twenty strong force, their boots clanking
in unison on the steel floor. Raoul dropped down from the shuttle to join
Jackson before the rest of the platoon on the muster parade. The murmurs dried
up as Raoul glared them down. Jackson regarded the men dispassionately for a
moment.

“We’re
going to split into two forces. One to remain here under Sergeant Raoul, the
rest with me to recce Heart Lake, then deploy between Crescent Waters and Heart
Lake.” He looked down at his boots then went on more softly. “You all know the
rumours. Well unfortunately for once it looks as if there may be some truth. As
from this moment this colony is on a war footing and we are on the front line.
Heart Lake was attacked. The population was… well, we have to assume they were
killed. I know some of you had people there, and we’ll mourn later. Put your
pain on one side for a little while.” Two of the troops looked down at the
steel deck and Jackson paused.

 “But
now we’re going to get some payback. We don’t know yet
what
we’re
fighting, but it lives in a lake and it’s big enough to drag a human. So it’ll
make a nice, big target.” The troops made affirming grunts and a few clashed
their weapons against their armour.

“We
are unlocking all munitions and all stores. We have instituted a Full – Rigour
Imperative on this one. Our one priority will be the safety and wellbeing of
our people. We are not, repeat
not
, assuming sentience on this one, so
none of that “Take me to your leader.” crap. If it ain’t human, shoot first,
shoot to kill. Clear?” Again the troops crashed their weapons against their
armour, this time bellowing out their affirmation. Sergeant Raoul leant over
and had a brief word in Jackson’s ear. Jackson nodded and went on.

“Another
thing, there is a gas associated with these creatures, so we’re going to need
the gas gear.” There were groans, which Raoul fixed with an icy look

“We
are not going to underestimate the enemy. Last night three hundred people went
off the grid. People we’re here to protect. But
they
were unarmed,
we
are not. If we meet the enemy tonight, we are going to Fuck. Them. Up. And
every single one of you is going to help make them
bleed
for what they
did!” Again the growling troops smacked their weapons against their chest
armour, and Lana felt the hairs on her arms prickle. Jackson looked at Raoul,
the sergeant took a breath.

“Every
second man, step forward!”

<><><> 

Grad
was desperate to get back. Out he here felt useless. Helpless. Worse than that;
because he and Jim were in need of picking up they would be a diversion just at
the time the colony needed to focus its attention fully on the threat it faced.
He looked down on the plain below at the animals.  Four oxen and one horse
were lying on the cooling damp ground, beyond them, a thunder storm built in
the middle distance. It was approaching slowly, but inexorably, drawing itself
over the early stars even as they lit up behind the sunset.

 Damn.
If they were sticking to the original arrangement then there would be a chance
that their shuttle out of here, piloted by his beautiful Lana, would have
sprung forth from that grey flickering bank of thunderheads and swooped down to
them. Now there was no chance of a retrieval until the morning, and even that
might be jeopardised if things went badly tonight. If he’d been on his own he
would have just set off, but with Chan to consider… Strangely enough he felt no
fear. Here they were. far beyond any help, night coming on fast, and with the
distinct possibility of some kind of large and deadly creature living in the
many standing lakes all round them, but he still felt nothing but frustration
at being out of the action.

In
any case, he was having a great deal of difficulty believing in the lake
monster theory. Something had killed all those people, 
that
he had
to accept. That morning a probe had examined the town, and there were signs of
a massacre. But he really couldn’t see it being a lake monster. Why would they
have not seen any sign of a large and dangerous predator? What, in this empty
world, had it been feeding on? There were no fish, no large or small animals.
Even one predator would have starved to death. No, what they were facing was a
human foe. Where from, why or who, was a mystery but they were definitely being
attacked, and humans were the only sentient creatures capable of spaceflight
who had not eschewed warfare long ago. They weren’t the only people on
Saunder’s World, he was sure of it.

Something
was wrong with one of the animals. The horse had just leapt about three feet
into the air as if it had been stung or bitten. But that was impossible, there
were no biting or stinging critturs on Goldilocks. Maybe it had been struck by
lightning? The oxen were racing away as fast as their unwieldy bodies could
lumber. It looked a little comic, or at least would seem so if only you could
tell what had spooked them so. The horse collapsed and the faint smile
disappeared from Grad’s face. He could just make out the last spasm of the
animal’s back, the last kick of its legs. He turned to alert Jim to the sight,
but the engineer was already watching in horrid fascination. Grad looked back, half
wondering if they should go and investigate. The horse slowly got to its feet,
it turned, tottering, and began to stagger towards them through the deepening
gloom.

<><><> 

The
wind streamed back at them through the open structure of the half- built
shuttle. Below them the green landscape rolled by, shot with lakes and pools
which held menace now even as they flashed in the dying sunlight. Far over on
the Northern horizon an immense thundercloud squatted like a granite citadel
borne on a dark grey mountain with innumerable towers and spires within which
lightening flickered like the artillery of a defending army. Jackson glanced
down to see the settlement of Heart Lake glide by. They were low enough to pick
out the white blobs of upturned faces, but Jackson was more interested in the
layout of the streets. Like Crescent Waters it had a basic layout onto which a
larger town would be allowed to grow organically as new settlers arrived or
were born. One major road cut through the town and from this two concentric
streets of houses parted and re-joined leaving a large green space in the
middle. He and his men would take their initial stand far from here, about
twenty klicks to the East towards Crescent Waters. But it was possible that
they might have to fall back here, and if that were the case they might have to
make a stand in the gateway to the town, where the streets diverged on either
side of the main road. Where there was, in effect, a crossroads.