The Caverns of Mare Cetus (53 page)

   "Hit it!" cried Renata. "Hit it already!"

   Richelle began slapping at it with her free hand as it darted around on Renata's body, but all she managed was to repeatedly hit Renata.

   At once Edison lunged for it, falling on Renata's back, Renata crying out from the impact of the rocks on her injured ribs. He tried to snatch it while it was crawling along her side, but it darted up to her shoulder, then jumped to her chin, then onto her nose. As she screamed, it ran down the side of her face and neck to her chest, stopping between her breasts.

   "Where is it?" cried Edison. "Where'd it go?"

   "Under me!" exclaimed Renata. "It's under my boobs!"

   "Oh, my Lord, please forgive me, Renata." Edison slipped his arms around her torso and began probing with his fingers.

   As he got near it, Renata could feel it moving back and forth along her chest toward her stomach. "Down," she said. "Down!"

   "Got it!" he shouted, then pulled his hands out from beneath her. He sat up.

   Renata looked up.

   Edison was dangling the tiny creature by several of its back legs as it repeatedly tried to jab its silvery spikes into his hand.

   Trent covered it with a sample bag and closed it tight.

   "What is that thing?" asked Arielle as she shakily held the gun on the bag and moved in for a closer look. "How did it get here?" A silvery spike suddenly poked through the bag, causing her to jump.

   "Excellent question," said Trent, his eyes held on the bag as another spike poked through it like a magician's sword through a box.

   Renata and Richelle stood up, both of them gasping for breath.

   "We need something stronger," said Edison. He took the bag from Trent and hurried toward his backpack, the others following.

   When he got to his pack, he and Trent dumped it into a transparent, box-like container. Edison sat down and held the box on his knee, the others peering at it with fascination and awe.

   The creature's six orange eyes, which almost seemed to glow, were set in two rows across the front of its head, and there was a mouthlike structure of some kind above them. Its body was bulbous, like that of a spider, but it had twelve legs and two short tails. There were a number of short spines randomly scattered along the upper surface of its body and two rows of short upward-slanted spines running along its sides, directly above its legs. Of great interest to Trent were the four spike-like appendages that came out from the body directly beneath its large rounded head. He ran a scan on them, confirming they were composed in part of metal—titanium and molybdenum. There was also a pair of claw-like appendages hidden beneath the spikes. Overall, the creature appeared both well-armored and stealthy, its body entirely black, except for the eyes. Trent also noted on his scan it had a skeletal structure of some kind, also composed of metals in part, like the spikes.

   As Renata noticed yellowish gunk that was sticking to some of the creature's spines, she immediately realized where it had come from—her pocket. She had Arielle help her empty her right pocket on the ground, and among more gunk and gunk-covered items were now two pieces of the pebble Renata had found, which were hollowed out inside.

   "Where did this come from?" asked Arielle. "It looks like an egg."

   Renata took the pieces and stuck them together along their break lines. "I've been meaning to tell you this…" She went into her experience by the spring, telling Arielle about finding the pebbles. She had Arielle pull up the v-log she made, and Arielle perused it, the others looking on.

   "This is utterly amazing," said Arielle. "These things are eggs. Maybe your body heat incubated this one or something."

   "Congratulations, Mom," said Edison, patting Renata's head.

   As Trent and Edison placed the creature in Edison's backpack and began discussing its implications, Arielle pulled Renata to the side, Richelle grudgingly coming with them.

   After the three sat down on some large rocks a short distance away from the men, Arielle whispered to Renata. "On your v-log. There was a quick shot of you. Were you topless?"

   Renata's face turned bright red. She must have momentarily had the Vimap camera pointed at herself as she scanned the passage.
Stupid!
She briefly told Arielle about her swim and exploring the passage naked, repeatedly emphasizing her own lack of judgement.

   "Oh…" said Arielle as if in thought. "That explains everything. Now I know why Ramon acted the way he did. He caught you with your clothes off, didn't he? When you were getting out of the spring, right?"

   Renata's stomach instantly filled with butterflies. "Yeah, uh, that's basically it." She began to cower, figuring a slap was coming next.

   "Oh, that silly guy." Arielle chuckled lightly.

   Renata's eyebrows rose.

   "The consummate practical jokester," said Arielle. "He took more than your boots, didn't he?"

   Renata gave her a long, slow nod.

   "He took your clothes and teased you with them, didn't he?"

   Renata bit her lower lip and nodded like a scolded child. "I'm sorry, Ari. I knew if I told you he did that, you'd kill him."

   "And you cut your feet when you chased after him, right?"

   Renata looked even sadder.

   Arielle burst into tears, grabbing Renata and giving her a strong hug. "I'm sorry. He didn't mean any harm—he didn't. It was his one vice. I knew he had this thing for ogling women, but I always tried to deny it."

   "That's all you think happened?" asked Richelle, sounding astonished. "Your boyfriend was alone in a secluded passage with a pretty woman like Rene—who was completely naked—and you think nothing happened? You're one stupid geologist then."

   "Shut up," mouthed Renata, looking over Arielle's shoulder.

   "You are pretty," sobbed Arielle. "I'm so glad he got to see you— before he died." Tears continued to pour down her face like she had spigots in her eyes. "She's right. Even if you screwed him it wouldn't matter…"

   Renata was flabbergasted. Was this woman Arielle?

   "If they screwed?" asked Richelle, her voice rising. "I'm sure they did screw. They screwed each other's eyes out. Right, Rene? Why don't you tell her what really happened…"

   Renata pushed hard on Richelle's head with her free hand.

   "Hey! What's that for?"

   Renata yanked forward with her cuffed hand, catching Richelle off balance, sending her sprawling forward on the rocks with a groan. Renata smiled in satisfaction—she really hoped that hurt.

   "Uh, oh," said Trent as his Vimap began loudly chiming. "I know that sound." He quickly scanned the readout on his screen. "Contamination!"

   "How?" asked Arielle. She let go of Renata. "Where?"

   "Right here," said Trent. "It's the SRC. It tagged the creature with its biodetector. It's pegged it as a significant contamination event. It's just sent a signal to the surface."

   Arielle stood up as anger flew to her face. She stormed over to the robotic and kicked her boot into the side of it. "You stupid fuck! Who told you to send out that signal?" She kicked it again. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

   "It means trouble," said Trent as he studied his Vimap.

   Renata stood up, dragging Richelle up with her. "The SeRBEs are going to get that signal."

   "They already have it," said Trent, his dismay apparent. "I know Novia moved in three SeRBEs to patrol around the area in which we landed. Two BEX-11s and a TERAD-15. That's the one that worries me. Once they analyze the signal, all three may be coming in here. They already have the coordinates, and their detection arrays are a billion times more sensitive than the Collector's. They will find that thing, and they will try to destroy it."

   "Hmmm," said Renata, her hand on her chin, her eyes looking up as if in thought. "So hard to choose. BEX—Bio-Exterminator. TERAD—Total Eradicator. Which one do I want to run into first? What are your thoughts on this, Richelle?"

   "I think you're nuts," said Richelle. "But then again, I like nuts."

   "Consider this, sarcastic one," said Trent. "The SeRBEs are some of the most intelligent and complex DENARs on this planet. Since the more complex something is the more it seems to be affected by what's in the caves, we may have a serious problem."

   "What do you mean?" asked Renata, confused by Trent's sudden revelation.

   "It's something I've been looking into for awhile. Since Richelle ran extensive neural scans on all of you after Kalo Two's attack, I decided to check through the results to see if something popped out at me. I ran one on myself too, to add to that dataset. Of all the different brain scan types, the neurometrical scans seemed to be the most interesting. Everyone's not wired the same—you know that. Different wiring is basically the result of a combination of genetics and environment. It's long been known men and women don't process sensory input in the same way in their brains. A simple difference is men hear with only the left side of their brain; women use both sides. That being understood, neurometric analytical techniques can provide a series of maps of how each of us individually processes data."

   "Interestingly, the neurometrical functionality curves of you, Richelle, and Devon are highly out of the ordinary when compared to the rest of us here and the population in general. Yours, Rene, is what they call a Far-Left Neural Net, which may have nothing to do with you being left-handed, but more often than not FLNNs are lefthanded. On the other hand, Richelle's and Devon's results show they have Far-Right Neural Nets. Devon's net though, is farther to the right than any I've ever seen. If I had to guess, I'd say some genetic manipulation was performed on her in her youth, but the type of manipulation necessary to alter brain functions to that degree is inherently risky. It's likely she was very Far Right initially, anyway. There are no baselines to compare her against."

   "So what you're saying," said Richelle, "is the way my brain sees things is different than the way yours does, right?"

   "In fact, they're quite a bit different," said Trent. "You didn't have any brain surgery when you were young, did you?"

   "What kind of a question is that?" she asked, her voice rising.

   "Obviously not the right one," said Trent, appearing embarrassed. "Sorry."

   "Apology accepted," said Richelle. "Go on."

   "Well, your net is very Far Right too. Because of that, we may both experience the same things, but your brain follows different routes than mine to process the input and provide output. Still, the results with most experiences might be exactly the same. I love the sunset, and you do too. You just have a different way of getting to that emotion than most people do."

   "What else can you tell me about Devon's results?" asked Renata.

   "Not to get into all the sticky details," said Trent, "but she likely experienced things differently than we do in a number of areas. Her neurons processed data far more efficiently than ours because her network was laid out, well, far more efficiently. There are some parts of her brain that were more active in her than in most people, but I'm not sure why. Her brain activity was also high-strung, for lack of a better term. It's likely it never went into a rest mode, even when she was asleep."

   "What you two do need to know—is you have neural net patterns that show up in less than one in every one million women." He suddenly got choked up. "I could never have dreamt in a thousand years I would ever be in the company of such remarkable women, all at one time." He put his hand to his mouth.

   Tears welled in Renata's eyes. She looked at Richelle and Arielle; there were tears in both of their eyes as well.

   "Damn," choked Arielle, "I know he's only talking about your brains, but it's breaking me up."

   "But enough of my sappiness." He wiped his eyes. "Get your gear. Let's get moving."

   "Give me a sec." Arielle hurried to her pack and pulled out a canteen and some personal items. She clipped the canteen to her belt and hastily stuffed the other items in her jacket pockets. Then she picked up her pack with both hands and walked over to the SRC. "No matter what anyone tells you, you'll always be an asshole." Like she was dunking a basketball, she raised her arms and slammed her pack into the SRC's open bin. "Remember that."

   After the group had stopped laughing at Arielle's antics, they started down the passage, and again made good time, Edison prodding everyone along. Trent began monitoring for signs of the SeRBEs but couldn't pick up any magnetic propulsion signals that would indicate any of them had entered the cavern yet.

   Continuing to use their supply of OPPs, the group hiked steadily with no problems other than Renata and Richelle occasionally fighting with each other over their cuffed hands. When the group made it to the end of the Long Hall, the women wanted to rest, but Edison wouldn't let them. He began pushing them through the steep, narrow passage that led out of the Long Hall, increasingly worried they were going to run into SeRBEs at any moment.

   After some slow, arduous hiking through the narrow passages that led to the Hall of the Great Lake, the trek's difficulty exacerbated by the cuffs that linked Renata and Richelle, the group stepped into the expansive room. Renata, Richelle, and Arielle immediately dropped to the floor, telling the men they needed to crash for a while, but Edison and Trent wouldn't allow it. The men pulled the women to their feet and continued pushing them along. An hour passed. Then another. They had reached the center of the Great Lake. An alarm rang from Trent's Vimap. The group stopped hiking.

   "It's a BEX-11," he said, examining the screen. "They're faster than the TERADs. It's on the other side of the Lake. It's coming this way."

   "Damn," said Edison, glancing at the emptiness around them. "There's nowhere to hide out here. What do we do? Can I take it out with this?" Edison held up the Machine Cutter.

   At once they heard a whirring sound coming from their right. Everyone turned. Kalo Three was a short distance away, coming toward them.