Excelsior (31 page)

“Quite a storm,” she said.

Alexander nodded, waiting for her report.

Korbin’s eyes returned from the ceiling, and she began, “All good news so far. Wonderland is looking more and more habitable by the day.”

“How’s Max doing?”

“No signs of any active infection. Toxicology scans also came back clean.”

Alex’s eyebrows floated up. “That is good news.”

Korbin nodded. “Doctor Crespin finished analyzing the rest of the soil and air samples, and there’s still no sign of a human-compatible strain of bacteria or virus. Crespin wants to continue testing, but even he admits that it’s unlikely we’ll find anything pathogenic at this point.”

“How confident is he about that?”

“Ninety nine percent.”

“So apart from potentially hostile flora and fauna, we’re ninety nine percent sure that Wonderland is habitable for humans.”

A booming peal of thunder punctuated that statement, and Korbin nodded.

“What about agriculture? What’s Cardinal have to say?”

“He’s already got corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes growing. It takes some work to prepare the soil, but otherwise it looks like we won’t have any trouble. So far our plants don’t appear to be compatible with Wonderland’s microbial life any more than we are, and the crops Cardinal has growing outside the lab haven’t attracted any insects yet, so there’s a good chance that we’ll be able to grow food even more easily here than we do on Earth.”

“So what’s stopping us from leaving in the morning?”

Korbin shrugged. “The consensus among the crew is that everyone would like to stay for at least another week, but I don’t think we really need more time to call Wonderland habitable.”

Alexander tried to keep his excitement in check. They could be back home in another seventy days—give or take a few weeks of transit to and from the wormhole on either end. “They have tomorrow to consolidate their findings and pack their samples, and then we’re out of here.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be sure to let them know.” Thunder boomed louder than ever, and this time both of them turned to look at the ceiling.

Alexander’s comm band beeped at him, and he absently brought it up to his mouth to answer. “Captain speaking.”

“Sir, it’s Ryder. I’ve got movement on infrared, out at the tree line. Six signatures.”

“Trees or animals?”

“Animals, sir. Big ones.”

“What are they doing?”

“They appear to be headed for the hab complex.”

“Why would they come here?”

“Maybe they saw the floodlights?”

“We’ve had our lights on since day one, and they haven’t bothered us before. Who’s out there with you?”

“No one. Lieutenant Stone just left to change out with Fernandez.”

“Bad timing. All right, see if you can scare them off, but don’t engage unless they attack you first.”

“Yes, sir. What if they breach the perimeter?”

“Then let them have it, precision fire only. We don’t want to risk hitting the habs.”

“Roger.”

Alexander listened as high caliber rounds stuttered out over the comm band’s speakers. “Seems to be driving them off… wait, no… they’re comin’ my way now. Shit!”

“Ryder, how close are they?”

More weapons fire. “Close!” Machine guns rattled away, and this time Alexander picked out the deep vibrating hum of laser fire. “They’re not spookin’!”

“Shoot them!”

The sound of weapons’ fire intensified, followed by Ryder cursing. Then came an eardrum-bursting roar, followed by static.

“Ryder!”

No answer.

“Ryder, come in!”

The comm call ended automatically, and the words connection lost appeared hovering in the air above his comm band.

Korbin shot him a wide-eyed look, her mouth agape.

Alexander bounced to his feet. “Change of plans. We’re leaving right now. Evacuate the crew to the shuttles.”

“What about our research?”

“It will be worthless if we don’t live to tell about it. Spread the word and get everyone out as quickly as possible.”

“We should at least backup our data to the Lincoln.”

“I’ll leave you in charge of that, but don’t stick around to wait for the backup to finish.”

“I won’t. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take the rover out and try to draw them away.” Alexander took off at a run. Behind him he heard Korbin giving the order to evacuate. He tried to tell himself that it was just a precaution and nothing was going to happen, but if those beasts had taken out a Cheetah assault mech, how much easier would it be to trample a few tents?

 

Chapter 28

Alexander ran across the grassy field from the hab complex to the rover, his heart pounding as rain pelted his pressure suit. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as he raced up the ramp to the rover’s rear airlock.

Seconds later, as he dropped into the driver’s seat and belted in, his comm band beeped with yet another incoming call. Alexander routed the call through the rover’s comm system.

“Hello?”

“Captain, it’s Fernandez. I’m on my way to the perimeter now. Tracking six targets. Permission to engage.”

“Permission granted.”

“Engaging…” The sound of lasers humming and crackling roared over the comms.

Alexander brought rest of the rover’s systems online and activated the vehicle’s headlights. Dead ahead he saw a cluster of white domes that was the hab complex. To one side, he saw a group of people running out to the nearest shuttle. Alexander checked sensors and saw the incoming animals. They were very close to the habs. As he watched, Fernandez’s Cheetah cut two of them down. The remaining four switched directions, heading toward their aggressor. They were almost on top of Fernandez, and moving fast.

Alexander hit the gas and the rover lurched into motion. “Fernandez, you need to get out of there!”

“Roger. I’m runnin’.”

“I’ll see if I can distract them for you,” Alexander said. He began honking the rover’s horn and flashing its lights to draw attention to himself. Pretty soon two of the blips on sensors broke off and started chasing him. Alexander drove toward them, hoping to get a visual. He squinted through the driving rain, watching the twin cones of light illuminated by the rover’s headlights. Nothing yet, but visibility was cut significantly by the rain.

Then one of the two burst into view. It was big all right—black fur was wet and glistening. It ran on its hind legs, balanced with its tail, and held its shorter forelegs in the air, just like a T-rex. Alexander blinked, shocked by the similarities. The beast was almost identical except for the fur. It ran right by him and body-checked the rover as it passed.

Alexander heard a crunch as the metal hull gave way. Cursing under his breath, Alexander turned the wheel, circling back around to chase the creature. He was just in time to see the other one go barreling through the hab complex, snapping its jaws on white canvas and air as it tried to kill a big, hollow white dome. The creature trampled the entire complex in seconds, dragging several of the domes along with its momentum before tripping over the swaddling canvas and collapsing in a thrashing heap. Alexander watched helplessly as the monster shredded white canvas with its claws and teeth. Twin crimson beams shot by in front of the rover and the other dino collapsed right in front of him, hitting the dirt with a ground-shaking thud. Alexander couldn’t stop in time, and the rover rolled up and over the furry beast. He went careening down the other side of it, headed straight for what was left of the hab complex. Alexander slammed on the brakes and stopped just before a staccato burst of laser fire sliced through the billowing pile of canvas to hit the second creature.

“That’s it. We got ‘em all,” Fernandez reported.

Alexander sighed. “Go check on Ryder. I’ll get the crew together and we’ll see what we can salvage here.”

“Yes, sir.”

Alexander dialed Korbin’s comm and sat listening to it ring. By the fifth ring he was starting to worry. What if she’d still been inside the habs when that dino tore through them?

Then he noticed a strange golden light blooming in the rumpled pile of white canvas. It took him a moment to recognize that light for what it was—

Fire. Ryder had used lasers to kill the dinos, and the heat had set the canvas ablaze. The hab complex was on fire, and Korbin might still be in there. Alexander placed a distress call on an open channel. Stone answered from Shuttle Two.

“What’s wrong, Captain?”

“Is Korbin there?”

“No, I thought she was with you?”

Alexander’s eyes flared. “She told you that?”

“No, but—”

“Never mind. The habs are on fire and I think she’s still inside.”

There was a brief pause on Stone’s end, followed by, “We’re on our way.”

Alexander hurriedly unbuckled his restraints and bolted from the driver’s seat, racing toward the rear airlock. I’m coming, Sirena, he thought.

But by the time he reached the habs, the entire complex was one big blazing inferno, and there was nothing left to do but watch it burn.

The rest of the crew came up beside him. Stone skidded to a stop and made a strangled sound over his suit’s speakers before screaming, “Shit!” and kicking the dirt with his boot.

Alexander turned to him slowly. The crew looked on in despair, watching their mission go up in the smoke of Korbin’s funeral pyre.

“Max is missing, too,” Stone said.

“What?”

“I just did a head count and Doc Crespin told me Max stayed with Korbin to help her with the backups.”

Alexander shook his head. After all the time they spent rescuing him, Max had ended up dead anyway. “This planet really is cursed. It’s time to get the hell away and go home.”

“What’s that?” Doctor Crepsin asked, coming up beside them. Alexander saw that he was pointing to a pair of shadows silhouetted to one side of the inferno.

“It’s them!” McAdams shouted.

They all ran to assist. Max stumbled along, half dragging, half carrying Korbin.

“Hello,” Korbin said weakly over her helmet speakers.

“Why didn’t you answer me on the comms?” Alexander demanded. “We thought you were dead!”

“You tried to contact me?” she asked, sounding confused.

“She took a blow to the head when those monsters brought everything crashing down,” Max explained. “She just came to a few minutes ago.”

“We need to get her to the shuttle so I can examine her,” Crespin said. “Can she walk?”

Max shook his head. “I think she twisted her ankle. It might be broken. Not sure.”

“It’s definitely broken,” Crepsin said, pointing to the odd way it was bent. “Stone, would you help Maximilian to carry her, please?”

Alexander looked on with a frown. “What about you, Max?”

“What about me?” he grunted while handing Korbin over to Crespin and Stone.

“Why didn’t you comm us for help?”

“Or answer my call,” Stone put in.

“Too busy saving Korbin’s skin. Besides what was I going to say? I’m under a heap of burning canvas, come find me! All that would do is get the rest of you into the same mess as us.”

“Hmmm. Well, I guess you’re safe now,” Stone said.

“What about the mission data?” Cardinal asked as the group began shuffling toward the nearest shuttle.

Max shook his head. “We couldn’t finish the backups in time. I had to drag Korbin away.”

“So we lost everything…” Cardinal said.

“We can take new samples in the morning,” Alexander replied. “And as for the data, when was the last offsite backup?”

“Three days ago.”

“Good enough. We’ll rebuild from that as best we can. Add your observations from those three days to fill in what’s missing. It’s still enough to call this mission a success and go home.”

“We’re going home?” McAdams chimed in. “I thought we were going to stay another week?”