The Caverns of Mare Cetus (42 page)

   "Okay, okay," said Renata, frustrated with Arielle's divergence from her question. "I know how you feel about Myos, and I agree with some of what you say, but let's get back to my question. Why doesn't Mare have life while Novia does?"

   "Every ingredient for life is here, but something has prevented or stopped life from evolving. I think the limestones are a clue. None of them are organic. One would expect them to be, but they aren't. I think Vasanta and Durjaya Vjas were on the right track. Then Vasanta was killed by this planet. After that, Durjaya was never the same. I fell in love with those two the first time I read about them. They weren't your standard PhD's, that's for sure. When things didn't work out the way they expected, they trashed their theories or revised them to fit the data. Vasanta was working on a causative link between the inorganic limestones and the lack of life on Mare when she died. God, I'd drop to my knees if she were here right now. She was a remarkable woman, absolutely brilliant. She was the Hawking of Mare, that's for sure…"

   
Vasanta. Another one of Arielle's obsessions.
If Renata didn't get Arielle off her continual digressions, she wasn't going to extract anything useful out of her. "Uh, let's switch subjects, okay? What did you say about the tetrahedrite and other minerals we found earlier? You called them unusual, didn't you?"

   "Well, there was a lot of widespread hydrothermal activity way back in the history of the planet. That's when those minerals would likely have formed. If that's true, then the rocks we're seeing must be really old. I would guess there's been some extensive uplift on Kallana—mountain building processes, pushing up these rocks—a lot longer back than we believe today."

   "So, what's that mean?" asked Renata as she scanned Kalo One's functions with her Vimap.

   "GEAN indicated those rocks are high grade ores based on the percentage of metals within them. It's a sure sign there are other hydrothermal deposits buried deep within the crust. Maybe even tessaniarite and cetimarinite, which are only found in the Tau System. That would be so very cool to find a big gob of tessaniarite swirls. Wouldn't it?"

   Renata nodded. "That makes me wonder. What age is the velandrite?"

   "I'd guess it's over a billion years old based on what Hunter told me."

   "But velandrite isn't an ore in the classic sense, is it?"

   "You got that right. I just love its emerald-green color and pyramidal crystals, but it's such a complex mineral it often displays nine other habits. I can't remember everything it's made of, but we've still been unable to synthesize it in the labs, which seems kind of crazy, but then again, how many other ores are a naturally ingestible antibiotic? I can count them with this." She held up her hand, making a zero with her forefinger and her thumb.

   "Then what about the yellow stuff? What do you think it is? Just properties—that's all."

   Arielle sighed. "You're testing me, aren't you?"

   Renata decisively shook her head.

   "Well, it isn't radioactive. And it seems to be very fine grained. That's a visual observation. It also seems to be a secondary mineral because it coats other minerals and fills in voids and fractures in the rocks. It isn't a clay though. I can't even guess how it forms and where it comes from. Until we get an analysis of its structure, there are too many possibilities."

   "I didn't tell you this, but when Richelle held the gun to my head, she pushed my head against a wall that had that mineral all over it. She told me it was going to screw with my brain."

   "Why would she have done that?" asked Arielle, sounding surprised.

   "I'm not sure. But haven't you noticed the changes in her? Her hair looks magnificent. Her face seems to have more color, and I'm not talking about bruises. She doesn't stutter anymore. Did you realize that?"

   Arielle shook her head.

   "I'm telling you, she isn't the same woman that came into the caverns with us. I had one heck of a fight with her. I can't believe I had to break her nose with my head. I thought for sure she was going to kill me."

   "I'm sorry we didn't get there sooner." Arielle lowered her head. "Trent was determined to put Isis back together, and I was too consumed with my own nausea. When we heard you scream, we just about died. Richelle's nuts though. I mean, with what she did to Isis and all."

   "I know you don't agree, but I'm still not sure she did that."

   "How can you keep saying that? She stabbed Edison and was the only one alone with Isis' body."

   "But we didn't find a knife or anything sharp on her or in the area. There wasn't any blood on her at all when she attacked me."

   "Well, dead bodies don't bleed much," said Arielle. "So that's not surprising."

   "Hey, what's the Kalo doing?" asked Trent as a loud grating noise flooded the passage.

   Renata looked up. The robotic had run into the right passage wall and was scraping along the rocks, throwing out a shower of sparks. She hit the Vimap kill command, and it immediately powered down. She moved up to examine it, keeping her hands behind her back as she carefully walked around it like an army officer inspecting troops.

   "Looks like one of its guidance sensors is out of whack," said Edison as he stepped toward it. "Try rerouting it to one of the alternate sensors. It should have done that automatically, but nothin's working right down here anymore."

   Renata called up the Kalo's configuration mode, and she and Edison spent several minutes trying to figure out why it wasn't seeing any of the alternate sensors. When they got it to see a proper sensor, she powered it back up. Immediately two black circular saw blades punched out from the front of the unit and began cutting into the limestone floor with a shrill, grating whine, kicking up rock fragments and a cloud of dust.

   Trent was standing close to the front of the Kalo; he jumped back.

   "Good God," said Renata. "What is wrong with this thing?"

   Trent took out his KDM and ran a quick check on the Kalo. "C5!" he exclaimed. "Use C5. It will kill the saws until a complete reset."

   Renata entered the command, and the blades ground to a halt with a screech, sounding like a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard. Within seconds, the unit pulled the saws back inside, and the slots that housed them closed with a clack. Its rows of green lights turned yellow, then red.

   "Damn saws," said Renata, wiping her brow with her hand. She stepped in front of the robotic and leaned over to look at it, but she couldn't see the slots. That was typical of Kalo design—everything was hidden by its cerametal overlay.

   Trent looked at the cuts the robotic had made in the limestone. Then he crouched in front of the unit and began to examine it. He asked Arielle for his Vimap.

   She gave it to him, then quickly backed away toward Renata who was now watching from a distance.

   Richelle stepped on the other side of Renata as Edison crouched on one knee and aimed the MC at the Kalo, as if practicing to destroy it.

   Renata glanced at Richelle, then returned her attention to the Kalo.

   "Rene," said Richelle. "You missed a spot." She raised her hands to Renata's face.

   Instinctively Renata stepped back, but Richelle was only holding a handkerchief.

   Richelle licked it several times and put it up to Renata's cheek, wiping off a spot of blood.

   Renata continued to gaze at her, unsure of her intentions. As Richelle touched her cheekbone, she flinched.

   "I really did hurt you, didn't I?" asked Richelle in a sympathetic voice.

   Arielle, heedfully watching every move Richelle made, had the Iravano drawn by her side.

   "I didn't mean to break your bone," said Richelle. "Here." She awkwardly stuck her hands in one of her pockets and took out a small silver tube with a pop-off lid. "Use some of this. It will help your bruising disappear. Trent gave it to me. See how it's worked?" She smiled.

   Renata took the tube, read the label, then began rubbing some of the bright yellow cream on her cheek. As she did, she noticed Richelle's bruises had faded significantly, but her nose was still pretty swollen. "It still hurts, doesn't it?" she asked.

   Richelle nodded. "Trent says it'll heal normally. The way you…"

   "Jesus!" shouted Trent suddenly. "Oh, my God!" He sounded in pain. "Girls! Edison! Help me!"

   The women turned. Trent was crouched in front of the Kalo, but now its lights were yellow.

   They rushed over to him, and shock came to their faces. He was on his knees, grimacing, his left hand held out in front of him, a long, thin blade sticking completely through it, just above the center of his palm. The blade itself was attached to an appendage extending out from the front of the Kalo.

   As Arielle screamed, Richelle froze, and Edison began swearing and pointing the Machine Cutter at the robotic, Renata threw off her pack, fell to her knees beside Trent, and looked at his hand. Though the blade was plain on one edge, it had coarse serrations on its other— it looked like some kind of saw. There was some blood oozing down both sides of Trent's hand, but it seemed the blade itself was preventing major blood loss.

   "I can't get it out," he groaned, his face filled with anguish, his eyes with terror. "The serrations. They've caught my hand. I can't get it free."

   Renata entered the kill command into her Vimap, then again and again, but the robotic's lights remained yellow, indicating it was still in a semi-operational mode. At once her eyes were drawn to the front of the unit—there were eight evenly-spaced vertical slots now open in a horizontal line. The slot closest to the wall having housed the blade that was now sticking through Trent's hand, the other slots contained blades or cutting tools that were still shadowed within the unit.

   "What the hell?" she exclaimed just as a wide serrated blade punched toward her so quickly she had no time to react. The blade missing her thigh by the slimmest of margins, it immediately retracted into the Kalo.

   She picked up a large limestone block off the ground and positioned herself on her knees next to Trent. She held the block in front of her with both hands, her eyes darting between all the slots. As one of the blades slowly moved toward her, she popped it on its tip with the block, causing it to retract. Immediately another saw-like tool sprang toward Trent, Renata just getting the block in front of it before it would have speared his leg. As she pushed down on the blade with the block, it pulled back into its slot.

   "Shoot it!" she cried as she continued to keep her eyes on the slots. "Shoot this thing already!"

   Arielle began pointing the Iravano at the robotic. "Where?" she cried. "Where do I shoot it?"

   At once Richelle fell on her knees beside Renata, nearly pushing Renata into Trent. She had a limestone block in her hands and immediately used it to block a blade that shot out toward her. She then began slamming the rock against the tip of a long blade that was moving toward Renata's right knee. After several blows, the blade snapped back inside.

   "It's toying with us," said Renata as she began focusing on the slots on Trent's side. She glanced at Trent's face; his eyelids were scrunched, his teeth clenched in agony. "If this thing kicks green, it'll cut us to ribbons." As the saw-like tool on Trent's side shot out again, she got the block on top of it, but it still managed to nick his knee. As it slowly pulled back, she continued hitting it with the block, trying to drive it into the ground. She glanced at Trent again. "We have to get your hand out. Edison! Arielle! Do something already!"

   At once a tremendous cannon shot rang out, its echoes seeming to bounce off the passage walls and all around them. Renata glanced at Arielle. She was standing a short distance back from the side of the Kalo, Edison beside her, the Iravano held with both of her hands. She fired again, sparks and metal fragments spraying off the frame, a fragment of something whizzing by Renata's ear. As Arielle pulled the trigger again, the gun let out with a dull clack. She pulled the trigger several more times with the same result, then checked the gun's status meter. "Damn it! It's jammed."

   At that instant a dual-bladed cutting tool shot up toward Renata's face, nearly catching her throat as she jerked her head away from it. It began to pull back.

   "Eat this!" cried Richelle as she leaned over and savagely struck at the cutting tool with her block, causing it to vibrate as it was pulled back inside. "You tore Isis up you freak!"

   Renata glanced at Trent; he had moved back and pressed his body against the wall, his skewered left hand held out as far as he could extend it, blood now streaming down both sides of his hand and onto his arm. As a long blade sprang toward Trent's head, Renata pushed her arms out and slammed it into the wall with the block. As the appendage slowly retracted, she hammered at it several times, trying to bend it against the passage wall.

   Two doubly-serrated saw blades punched toward Renata's right leg. She tried to turn and block them, but Richelle got there first, slamming one of the blades into the floor but missing the other one, its long tip driving into the side of Renata's right leg, just above her knee. Renata grimaced as both blades pulled back toward the Kalo, a spot of blood growing on her pants.

   "Damn it!" cried Arielle as she looked at the status window on the gun's stock. "Screw these instructions! Just fucking work already!" As she aimed the gun at the Kalo, she began hammering on the Iravano's trigger with her finger, clacks continuing to spill from the gun.

   "My pocket!" cried Renata as she pressed on the painful cut in her leg with both of her hands. "The other gun's in my inside pocket."

   Richelle set her block down and reached inside of Renata's jacket. She grabbed the Iravano and tossed it to Edison, then picked up her block and began hammering on a serrated blade that was slowly moving toward Renata. Immediately two others sprang at Richelle, one missing her—the other catching her in the right thigh, drawing blood, then quickly pulling back. "Shoot the blades!" she shouted. "Shoot the blades!"