Orbs II: Stranded (16 page)

Holly smiled. “You get to eat them.”

Jamie frowned. “Hey! That’s not fair.”

The smile on Holly’s face faded, and she reached down to touch Jamie on the cheek. “I know, and I’m sorry. But life isn’t fair, Jamie. What happened outside isn’t fair. And we need to appreciate what we have left—what is given to us.”

Bouma reached out for her hand again, and this time she didn’t let go.

CHAPTER 23

A
LEX
gripped the railing overlooking the cargo bay. Below, the
Ghost of Atlantis
was filled with three state-of-the-art helicopter gunships, a half dozen Humvees, and two dune buggies equipped with NTC’s latest hydrogen engines. Alex recognized the carbon-fiber tubing snaking out from under the belly of the small vehicles. They ran off a mixture of hydrogen and solar power, much like many of the modern cars and trucks. Before the invasion, he had wanted one of the hydro cars, but his bank account was too dry for the fantasy to go anywhere beyond window-shopping.

“This way,” a young, balding NTC officer said, motioning the tour forward.

Alex followed the rest of the group down a metal ladder leading into the cargo bay. He was surrounded by a handful of Chinese officers who had boarded the sub. The tour was a crash course in the GOA, but Alex knew that the Chinese probably had no idea what they were looking at. They’d been underwater for years, and the technology of the GOA made the X-9 look like an antique.

As Alex looked around him, he was once again reminded that he was completely out of place. Captain Noble had insisted that he become familiar with the sub, as it was going to be his home for the indefinite future. The thought was difficult for Alex to accept. For the past few days, he had been thinking a lot about the outside. His friends, his family, everyone he had left behind. Frankly, he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to live in this new world. What was the point?

The NTC tour guide distracted him from his thoughts as he explained the contents of the cargo bay.

“That’s the
Sea Serpent
and her sisters,
Snake Eyes
and
Eagle 2
. They’re NTC’s latest weapons of mass destruction,” the bald man said, pointing to the helicopters. “When we surface, a ramp can be deployed to help move the aircraft into position so that the helicopters can leave the GOA while it is partially submerged.”

The Chinese officers looked at the gunships and vehicles, their expressions emotionless. After serving for a decade on the same ship, the crew had probably grown used to the monotony of their cramped quarters. Some of them probably saw fresh air only when the sub would surface to resupply. Which probably wasn’t very often, considering how long it had stayed hidden. Alex shuddered; he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life on a craft like this. The submarine’s thick metal walls had already become oppressive to him, and the stale air made him feel as if he were drowning all over again. He took a breath and tried to push the feeling back down inside him. He had to.

“Wait up,” a voice said as Alex followed the rest of the tour down a ladder. He turned to see Captain Noble running down the narrow hallway connecting to the cargo bay. “Seen enough yet?”

Alex smiled half-heartedly. “Yeah, I think I’m good. Those helicopter gunships are pretty amazing, though.”

“They better be. NTC spent twenty billion on the research, design, and construction.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

The man looked back at him, his bearded face giving away no hints of a lie.

“Damn,” Alex finally said. “Think you’ll get to use one?”

“That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. He knew whatever Noble was going to say couldn’t be good.

“Captain Quan and I have decided to surface for recon. Instead of docking and going ashore, we’ll be taking one of those out. Is there anything you saw out there that might help us? Anything you haven’t told me yet?”

Alex wanted to tell him he was crazy, that the men and women who took off in the gunship would never return. They were all going to die. Instead, he shook his head and said, “I’ve already told you all I know.”

An hour later, Alex lay on his hard bed, one of his feet dangling over the side. It was the most comfortable place he had slept since he left the Biosphere at Edwards. He even had an extra coat of Vaseline on his lips. All around him he could hear the familiar noises of human engineering. But for some reason, he still didn’t feel safe.

His mind turned each and every noise into something else. The clanks coming from the hallway were Spiders dragging their claws across the floor. The humming vibrating through the metal walls was a drone hunting the landscape for him. And those chirps were Worms belching human prisoners into the sky.

He wanted to scream, to claw the memories from his head. But there was no shutting them off. Nothing, not even the GOA, could protect him from his own mind.

With his head still pounding, he closed his eyes and sucked in a breath through his nostrils. The pain slowly diminished, but he could still feel every heartbeat pulsing in his temples. Alex knew what he really needed now was a good night’s sleep.

As soon as he closed his eyes, they snapped back open. He could hear them again. He could hear them coming!

Scratch, scrape, scratch, scrape.

Alex sat up so fast he nearly hit his head on the ceiling. Scrambling across the bed, he cowered in the corner of the bunk and put his hands over his ears. He knew it wasn’t possible for a Spider to be on the ship. It was all in his head.

Wasn’t it?

He closed his eyes and thought of his sister. A week ago he’d still had a glimmer of hope that maybe Maria had survived, but not anymore, not after seeing what it was like outside. And even if she had somehow survived, she would have been herded into one of the Organics’ human farms.

He could almost see her face staring back at him from inside one of the orbs, a look of terror spread across her features. He could see her mouth moving as she screamed, but couldn’t hear her voice.

Alex smashed his head into the wall. He had to make the nightmare stop. Had to get the images out of his mind.

Scratch, scrape, scratch . . .

Cupping his ears, Alex let out a scream and jumped off the bed.

Where was the sound coming from?

He wasn’t about to wait to find out. Barefoot, he rushed across the cold metal floor and burst into the hallway. A man in red coveralls threw up his hands and backed against the wall. “Watch it, man!”

“Sorry,” Alex replied. But he wasn’t paying attention. He was running, his eyes darting across the shadows. Around every turn he braced himself, flinching, expecting a Spider to tear into his soft flesh.

He froze when he neared the next bulkhead. Above, a bank of red emergency lights flickered. A siren’s wail rang out a second later.

“All hands to your stations. All hands to your stations,” Irene’s voice repeated over the com.

Alex felt the submarine turn sharply to the right. He tried to brace himself against the wall but stumbled and fell to his knees. Terror took him over like a virus. Shimmering reds and yellows swam across his consciousness. He started hyperventilating.

Forcing himself off the ground, he stumbled along the hallway, his hands clawing at the walls desperately. The sub jerked again and he slid across the metal floor.

When the boat righted itself, he found his balance and rounded the next corner at full speed.

Two minutes later he was standing outside the CIC, shoeless, sockless, and gasping for breath.

NTC officers in black uniforms rushed about. Some of them carried tablets, while others simply jumped from station to station, monitoring the information feeding through the blue screens. They all wore the same anxious look. Noble was standing in the midst of it all, his iron-red beard concealing his expression.

“What’s going on?” Alex panted from the doorway. The NTC guard
he had seen earlier held up a hand.

“I can’t permit you to enter,” he said, his voice muffled from the breathing apparatus.

“It’s okay. Let him in,” Captain Noble replied.

Alex scurried past the guard and made his way to Noble’s station. “What the hell is going on?”

The alarm continued to screech in the background, mixing with shouts from NTC officers and sporadic chirps from their stations. The room reeked of chaos.

And then it all shut off, like someone had flipped a switch. Alex followed the gaze of the other crew members toward the front of the room, where a blurry image crept across the main screen.

Something was swimming beyond the beams of the bow, something . . .

Blue.
Alex wanted to turn away, but he forced himself to look.

Had the Organics found them?

“Someone get me eyes on that thing!” Noble shouted.

“Contacts are everywhere,” announced a startled voice.

A tail whipped past the camera and vanished into the black depths.

“What the fuck . . .” Noble whispered.

Seconds later the entire screen lit up with the bioluminescent glow of hundreds of tails of slithering, snakelike creatures. They hit the side of the GOA like mini-torpedoes, sending multiple vibrations through the hull of the sub. The cabin shook as the creatures continued their assault. Alex could hear their claws raking across the hull. The screeching sound of metal drowned out the frantic voices of the NTC crew.

“What are those things?” Noble shouted. “I want a report ASAP.”

“Sir,” a skinny African-American officer said. “There’s hundreds of them. They look like some species of Organics.”

Another series of tremors sent the captain tumbling to the floor. Trish quickly helped him up.

“Damage report,” Noble yelled.

“Sir, they aren’t getting through our hull. This sub is made of titanium,” Irene said over the com.

Another blue tail raced by the screen, and then another. The feed
became a blur of bodies as they swam past the camera. Alex gasped when one of the creatures circled back around. The thing looked toward the camera with its triangular head. At least, Alex thought it did. The alien had no face. No eyes, no mouth—just a head with a large sharp fin sticking out of the top.

Alex’s heart thumped in his chest. It was one of the ugliest things he had ever seen.

“What in the hell . . .” Noble said, grabbing the table next to him for balance. “Weapons systems go green! Light those fucking things up! I want . . .”

The captain’s words became a slur as Alex watched the creature straighten out. The alien flapped two pelvic fins to hover in the water. It had no eyes but it seemed as if the alien could sense the camera, as if it knew it was being watched.

Alex continued to stare at the snakelike Organic with grim fascination. In the blink of an eye, the monster’s entire midsection ripped open, revealing a chest full of sharp teeth. It darted to the side and disappeared in a cloud of bubbles.

“Sir, Captain Quan is hailing us,” the communications officer yelled from the front of the room.

“Patch him through!”

“Sir, he’s saying the X-9 has been compromised. Those things are inside his ship!”

Alex thought of Lin and the other NTC officers aboard the sub. He could visualize the creatures slithering through the corridors, wrapping around a person and devouring them.

The captain walked closer to the screen, his eyes growing wider with disbelief. “How the hell did they get on his sub?”

“More than likely through the torpedo slots,” Irene responded. Her hologram appeared on the console nearest the captain’s station. “I’ve completely sealed off GOA. It is unlikely they will be able to get in, but I highly recommend changing course.”

“I’m not leaving the X-9,” Noble said.

First Officer Le abruptly popped up from his station. His chest swelled beneath his tight uniform.

“Sir, another message is coming through from their sub . . . give me a second,” Trish said. “He is sending us coordinates. Looks like a rendezvous point.”

Captain Noble looked at the ground and then glanced over at Le. The man remained silent and slowly sat back down in his chair.

“Tell him we will be waiting. Tell him . . .” Noble looked over at Le one more time, but the man was now hidden by a row of blue screens. Noble didn’t finish his sentence. He simply continued to stare at the screen in disbelief.

Alex’s heart thumped harder in his chest. He knew exactly what the new aliens meant. The Spiders might not have followed him into the ocean days before, but their snakelike friends somehow had.

The vessel turned again, and an image of the Chinese vessel bled onto the screen. Attached to its hull were hundreds of aliens, all scraping and scratching to get inside.

CHAPTER 24

S
ERGEANT
Overton walked into the med ward with a scowl on his face. The look did not flatter him. The scars on his face wrinkled, forming deep lines on his cheeks. Sophie was in the middle of buttoning up her top and acknowledged him with a nod, trying to avoid eye contact when she saw the coffee mug in his hand shaking. She braced herself for what was to come—he was pissed, again.

“You guys done?” asked Overton. “We have some business to attend to.”

“What do you need?” Sophie asked, still not looking at him.

“Remember the civvie from the other Biosphere? Alex Wagner?”

“Yes, we haven’t heard from him for some time now,” Emanuel said, his face flushed with embarrassment.

“No shit. I checked the radio today, and the channel is dead. Not sure when it went offline, but it completely vanished.”

Sophie finally glanced at Overton. His blue eyes were hard again, filled with that same hopeless darkness.

“I’m sorry,” she finally managed to say. She had wanted to save Alex, but what could she do? He was in California, and with Organics swarming the country, he might as well have been on Mars.

“It was just a matter of time.” Overton put his foot up on one of the chairs and looked straight at Emanuel. “How’s it going with the weapon?”

The biologist stuttered. “I-I’m working on it.”

“Well, when’s it going to be fully online? When can we deploy it
over a larger area?” Overton asked, leaning closer to Emanuel.

Sophie inserted herself between the two men. She stood directly in front of Overton, close enough that she could smell his breath. It stank of cigarettes and coffee.

“We talked about this less than twenty-four hours ago. And I don’t want to rush Emanuel.”

Overton gritted his teeth. “So you guys can screw while the rest of us are out here busting our asses? Is that how it works, Sophie?”

She gasped. “So you’re
spying
on us now?”

Overton took his foot off the chair and hurled an angry look at Sophie and Emanuel. “Get the RVAMP online—if you can keep it in your pants long enough, that is.” Then he stormed out of the room.

Sophie listened to the glass door slide shut and cupped her face in her hands. “Seriously, that man is starting to really get on my nerves.”

“He has a point though, Sophie. We
were
wasting time.”

“Wasting time? Are you serious?” she said, finishing the last button on her shirt before heading for the door.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Emanuel yelled after her.

Sophie stopped at the edge of the table where the RVAMP lay in pieces. She slid her hand over the weapon’s smooth exterior. It was fascinating that a metal box with such simple components could protect them from an advanced alien race. But then again, nothing really surprised her anymore.

“I’m sorry, Sophie. I didn’t mean . . .”

“Forget about it. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get to work on the device.”

“All right,” Emanuel said in a hushed tone. “Alexia, I need you to find a way to increase the wavelength. It has to travel over a longer distance without draining the battery.”

Sophie watched as Emanuel sat down in front of one of the blue screens and slid his fingers over the monitor. The display glowed to life with the image of a 3D topographical map.

When she was a kid, she used to hike in the Rocky Mountains with her father, not too far from Cheyenne Mountain. He had taught her to use a topo map, so she knew vaguely what she was looking at.
Seeing the lakes and streams, however, put a knot in her stomach. The 3-D image depicted the landscape around Colorado Springs before the invasion. Things were very different now.

“The mountains are going to be a huge problem,” Emanuel said.

“Actually, they could probably work to our advantage,” Sophie said thoughtfully. She pointed at one of the taller mountains. “The higher we broadcast the signal, the less interference and the better the range we’ll get.”

Emanuel ran his hands through his thick mop of hair. “You’re absolutely right,” he said. “But how the hell are we supposed to get it on top of a mountain?”

“I’ll do it.”

Sophie cringed. The sergeant was back. She took a deep breath before turning to face him.

“Forgot my mug,” he said shrugging. He swiped the coffee cup from the metal table, propped his right boot up on the chair and took a long swig.

“Have a seat and listen,” Emanuel said.

Overton ignored him and remained standing.

Sophie wasn’t sure she wanted Overton to hear how close they were to a solution. “In theory, the higher up the weapon is, the more effective the range will be. But even if it works, it still won’t affect the advanced Organics. Their ships are still too far away. Setting the weapon off now could draw attention to the Biosphere. We’d be putting everyone at risk.”

“Kind of like what happens when you disturb a hornet’s nest,” Emanuel interjected. “I agree with Sophie; we should expect swift retaliation by the mother ships.”

Overton crossed his arms. “I don’t think you two are seeing things clearly. You’ve both been outside. You’ve both seen what we’re up against. Now that we know there are survivors, we have a duty to help them.”

“We’ve been through this, Overton. Emanuel has to get the device to work on a much larger scale before I agree to send anyone out there,” Sophie said. Her voice was beginning to get louder, more agitated. “I’m
not going to tell you again.”

Overton took his foot off the chair. “Alexia, if I get this device to the highest point on the mountain, how far will the blast radius carry?”

“One moment, Sergeant Overton.”

Sophie held her breath. If Alexia gave Overton the ammo he needed, there would be no stopping him.

Two seconds later the AI’s avatar emerged over the console in the middle of the room. “My calculations would put the range at approximately fifteen square miles.”

Overton unfolded his arms and clapped his hands together. With a laugh he said, “That’s good enough for me.”

Sophie sighed; she was out of options. She could feel Overton’s eyes burning into her back, waiting for an answer. She caught Emanuel’s gaze, but he just shrugged and fidgeted with his glasses.

“Okay, here’s how this is going to work. I am going to have Alexia deploy our last bot to survey the route to the lakebed. I don’t want any surprises. In addition, I want you to give me a briefing on your weapon situation—how much ammo, how many guns, etc. Lastly, I want a plan to extract the survivors. We won’t have room for many. And we don’t know what will happen if we remove them from the poles.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Overton said, gesturing with a haphazard salute.

Sophie smiled. He hadn’t heard her last request yet. “One more thing, Sergeant.”

Overton narrowed his eyes.

“That direct route we’re taking? It’s going to be mostly underground. We’re taking the subway.”

“We?” Emanuel shouted.

“Subway?” Overton yelled.

Sophie’s face remained stern. “You heard me.”

Both men stared at her in disbelief.

“But Sophie, you’re still not fully healed from the injury you got last time you went out . . .” Emanuel began to say.

“I’m fine,” she lied.

Overton grunted. He began to open his mouth but opted to remain silent.

“Alexia, prepare the bot,” Sophie said as she walked out of the room.

“That’s it? That’s all the ammo we have?”

Bouma followed Kiel’s gaze across the table. There were only three pulse magazines, a handful of regular grenades, and a dozen rounds for the weapons Jeff and David had brought with them.

Kiel chuckled nervously. “So we’re going back out there with one mag each?”

“You’ll go where you’re ordered with the weapons I order you to go with. Last I checked, I’m still breathing. And until I am killed or incapacitated, you will not question orders,” barked Overton.

“This is insane,” Kiel muttered. He took a step back from the table.

“What was that?” Overton asked, cocking an eye at the smaller marine.

Kiel forced the most respectful voice he could conjure. “I said okay.”

Overton studied the smaller marine. God, it was good to have him back, but the kid was already starting to annoy him. He didn’t need anyone questioning his orders. Especially now, when so much was at stake.

“Why do you think Doctor Winston wants to take the subway?” Bouma asked, shuffling through his gear bag.

Overton shrugged. “Don’t ask. I don’t know why she has a hard-on for the underground. When we took the tunnels under Denver Airport, we still ran into those things. Is it safer strategically? I’d say flip a coin.” He stopped to look at one of the maps. “Shit!” he yelled, pounding his fist on the table. “None of these are current.”

Hunching over the table, Overton folded the maps and tucked them into his pocket. He grabbed a tablet instead. The last thing he wanted to do was rely on bad intel.

“Hey, Alexia,” Overton shouted. “I need you to upload the current maps you have for Colorado Springs to my tablet.”

“One moment, sir.” Her avatar appeared a second later. “Task completed. I have uploaded a route from the subway to the lakebed to your HUD. I should add that you will have to drive six point two miles
to get to the entrance of the subway.”

“What’s the plan?” came a voice from behind them.

Overton closed his eyes. He should have known Jeff would want to tag along. He turned to see the young boy standing next to David in the entrance to the kitchen. David was chomping on a carrot.

“The plan is that you are staying put.”

“Like heck I am,” Jeff said. “I can fight just as good as any of you.”

Kiel laughed, but Overton remained stern. “Look, kid, I know you held your own out there, but Kiel and Bouma already have to drag Sophie along with them, and I have to haul this thing up a freaking mountain. Nobody has time to babysit on this mission.”

“I can take the device,” said Kiel.

Overton grew silent. He hadn’t even considered letting the younger marine do it. But why not?

Kiel’s voice grew louder and more excited. “I’m the fastest of the group. And I took climbing lessons after high school, right before I joined the marines.”

Overton nodded. “Yeah, I remember. I read your report.”

“So you know I’m our best shot.”

Overton didn’t like the idea of giving someone else that kind of responsibility. He didn’t exactly trust Kiel, but then again, he knew the younger marine was right. He was the fastest and most agile of the team, and Overton’s shoulder still hadn’t healed since the first excursion into Colorado Springs.

“Fine,” Overton snorted. “Emanuel, get Kiel fitted to the RVAMP.”

Kiel grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah, so don’t make me regret this,” Overton replied.

Kiel smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.”

Overton had heard those words many times before, mostly from men and women who had died in battle. Young marines thought they were invincible, but they were no match for pulse rounds, bombs, and the weapons of war. No, the young ones always ended up cannon fodder.