Dubious Heroes: a novel Read online

  “Decreasing speed”, Angie said. “We’re picking up a lot of sheer from crosswinds. Everyone stay strapped in, this could get bumpy.”

  “Big surprise”, Eng said. “It’s windy out there.”

  He tapped on his vidscreen, scowling. I wasn’t sure what he was pissed off about, and didn’t have time to check. I ran through several of my screens, mostly just killing time for a few minutes. Finally, an alarm sounded.

  “Touchdown in thirty seconds”, Angie said. The hologram of the planet had been replaced with one showing us a view of the landing zone topography. She was going to put us down about a hundred yards from the shore of a large lake.

  The ground sped below us as we neared the LZ, then slowed to a stop. We were hovering. Slowly, we began to sink toward the ground.

  “I have contact”, Angie said. “Engines are offline… now.”

  Suddenly, the floor seemed to drop out from under us, and I felt butterflies in my stomach. An instant later, we hit with a bone-jarring crash, accompanied by the screech of twisting metal. Then it became eerily quiet, with only the sound of the wind and rain lashing the outside of the Bridge module.

  We were on the planet.

  Chapter 19

  “Angie?” I said. “What the hell was that?”

  “Sorry”, she said. “That was my fault.”

  “That was a crash landing”, Eng said. “A small one, anyway.”

  “The sensors misread the vegetation as the surface”, Angie said. “I thought we were down, and killed the engines.”

  “So, what broke?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure I heard something break.”

  “You did”, Eng said. “We’re listing a few degrees, and we shouldn’t be. The landing struts are self-leveling, so I’d bet we damaged at least one of them.”

  “Landing strut three”, Angie said. “We’re leaning slightly in that direction. Tilt is minimal though, only about five degrees.”

  “Minimal for now”, Eng said. “What happens when we put three hundred tons more weight on it?”

  “I’ll get Cozi to look at it”, I said. “If that’s the worst that happened after dropping two hundred tons twenty feet, I think we’re lucky.”

  “No shit”, Kyra said. “Can we get on with this? There’s no guarantee they haven’t pinpointed our LZ.”

  “You’re right”, I said. “Let’s get this done, and get out of here. What are the conditions outside?”

  “Weather radar is online”, Eng said. “I’m also picking up local conditions from the sensors in the Science module. Looks like it’s raining heavily, but the good news is that we’re in between two heavier bands of the typhoon. Sort of a lull, I guess, but it’s temporary. Right now, I’m showing sustained winds of about thirty miles an hour, gusting to around fifty. Once the next squall arrives, it’ll get worse. A lot worse.”

  “Okay”, I said. “I’ll bite. Define worse.”

  “Sustained winds of a hundred, maybe even one-twenty, gusting to one-forty or more.”

  “Damn”, I said.

  I unstrapped, rose and walked over to one of the viewports. I punched a button, and the shielding slid aside. I grabbed the bulkhead to steady myself, and looked outside. I still felt weak; aftereffects of the high gees, probably.

  Rain streaked the glass of the portal. Below, I thought I could see what might be the tops of trees, thrashing about in the wind. Visibility was poor, and it was all sort of a greenish blur.

  “How long before it gets worse?” I asked.

  “You’ve got thirty minutes before conditions begin to deteriorate. Maybe forty-five or fifty minutes until we’re in the thick of it”, Eng said. “That will last about an hour, and then we’ll be in another lull between the bands again. That one will last maybe ninety minutes. We landed west of the center of the storm, so we’re directly in its path. Each band of heavy weather will get stronger and stronger, the closer the center of the storm gets to us.”

  “Marvelous”, I said.

  “We should be out of here long before that happens”, Kyra said, as she unstrapped from her seat, “At least, if we quit talking and start working.”

  “Agreed”, I said. “Eng, you have the Bridge. You and Angie keep an eye out for bad guys, and stay on top of the weather, too. The less surprises, the better. We’re heading down.”

  We met in the lower cargo module, where the big pump had been installed in one of the empty bays. Cozi, Lola and Big Mike were already there, prepping the pump and connecting hoses. The plan was pretty simple. Lola would stay aboard and coordinate getting the containers filled, which involved running hoses from one bay to another. The ten-thousand gallon containers in each bay had already been plumbed together by the guys we rented them from, back on New London. Big Mike and Cozi were there mostly to help Lola lug the big hoses around.

  The away team, such as it was, would be me and Kyra. Some idiot had to drag a fat hose from the pump, located way up in the cargo bay, down the outside of the ship, through a hundred yards of jungle, and drop the other end into the lake. That idiot would be me. Kyra would be there as my lookout and protection, making sure something didn’t mistake me for a mid-storm snack.

  While they ran hoses between the cargo bays, I unreeled a bunch of the feed hose, and shoved it out of the cargo bay door. I soon found that standing by the door and ogling the scenery wasn’t a good idea, when a gust of wind ripped by the bay, nearly blowing me out. It was at least a hundred feet to the ground below, and I became an instant believer in staying away from the edge.

  On top of the capricious winds, there was the rain, and lots of it. Sometimes it came down straight, sometimes sideways, blowing into the bay, soaking everyone and everything. I’d never seen rain before, but I figured if this was all there was to it, I’d seen enough for the rest of my life.

  Since I’d grown up on Luna, water had always been a valuable commodity. Here, it was just falling willy-nilly from the sky. Helluva way to run a planet.

  Lola walked up, looking like someone had tried to drown her. Cozi didn’t look much better, and hairless Mike leaned against the cargo bulkhead, dripping and grinning. Kyra, her flaming red hair tied back, was not in a good mood.

  “We’re all set”, Lola said, “Except for shifting some of the hoses around, but we can do that as we go along.”

  “Okay”, I said, looking over at Kyra. “I guess that’s our cue.”

  We both inserted ear buds into our ears, and climbed down to Engineering. A hatch there let us out onto a ladder, attached to one of the landing struts. I’d never appreciated how fast a fifty mile an hour gust of wind was, until the climb down that ladder. The rain wasn’t helping, either. My boots had sticky shoe soles on them, and I still nearly fell twice. Well, one of the times I was nearly blown off, but I suppose that counts.

  We reached the surface, and looked around. There hadn’t been a clearing in the trees where we landed, but thanks to our engines, and a certain amount of crashing down, there was one now. Broken and charred tree limbs littered the ground, some of it steaming, but thanks to the rain, nothing was on fire. Even the Enigma’s engines had cooled significantly; the wind and rain had seen to that. We stood at the base of the ship, the wind, less strong on the ground, still pushing us around a bit.

  Kyra pointed up, and I looked where she was indicating.

  “That landing strut nearly buckled”, She said. I could easily see where it was bent. “That will have to be fixed when we get back to port; it’ll never retract like that. Shouldn’t slow us down leaving, though.”

  “I guess we’re lucky we didn’t tip over”, I said.

  “Wait until we have all that water loaded before you toast our good luck”, she said, as she scanned the jungle around us, looking for movement. I didn’t see how she’d tell, since everything was whipping around in the chaotic wind.

  “You afraid?” She asked, smiling at me, as the wind-driven rain pelted us.

  “Scared shitless”, I said, and tried to muster a grin
of my own, but couldn’t quite manage it. “So, this is a planet.”

  “Yep, this is a planet. Just keep your eyes open. Most anything with any sense will be holed up, riding the storm out.”

  I bent down and touched the ground, digging my fingers into it; it was soft and spongy. I scooped up a clump, and crumbled the wet mess between my fingers. Kyra watched, clearly amused.

  “We have work to do”, she said. “You can play tourist once we’re pumping water.”

  I wiped my hand on my coveralls, figuring the rain would take care of it, shortly. I drew my pistol, and chambered a round, as she’d shown me before, then reholstered the weapon.

  “Everything with any sense apparently doesn’t include us”, I said, looking around.

  “Us, and those things”, she said, pointing. Something large and hairy was creeping around in the underbrush at the edge of the clearing, watching us.

  “What the fuck is that?” I asked, drawing my pistol again.

  “I think it’s a bear”, she said. “Didn’t you read your own info package on the planet?”

  “I was busy”, I said. “Anyway, I saw a bear once in the zoo, and that ain’t a bear.”

  “That’s just what the locals call them”, she said. “I don’t remember the real name. Same basic concept as a bear, though. Big, hairy, lots of teeth and claws. Eats most anything. These might be meaner than the Earth variety, though; they like to sneak up on you, and sometimes they hunt in packs.”

  I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, pounding rain notwithstanding. I turned around to look behind us. Nothing there but jungle, flailing in the wind.

  “You guys might want to get on with it”, Cozi said, into my earpiece.

  “We’re working on it”, Kyra said. She was wearing her own sleek black clothes, rather than the jumpsuit I’d given her. She also wore twin holsters, a pistol on each hip. Standing there in the rain, wet hair blown by the stormy winds, she was probably the sexiest woman I’d ever seen.

  She pulled her pistol from the right holster, aimed, and fired a shot into the bear lurking in the bushes. It roared, and charged into the clearing, heading our way.

  “I think you pissed it off”, I said, drawing my own pistol.

  She fired two more shots in quick succession, and it dropped heavily to the ground, fifty feet from where we stood. We walked over to where it lay, and she nudged it with the toe of her boot. It didn’t move.

  “That’s pretty damn big, for a bear”, I said.

  “More teeth and claws, too”, she said. “This ought to give his buddies something to snack on besides us, at least for a little while.”

  “So you think there are more of them out there, nearby?”

  “I know there are more out there”, she said, “I can hear them.”

  I listened, but couldn’t hear anything but the howling wind, accompanied by the rattle and rustle of the wind-thrashed jungle. I tried to stand completely still, but the wind kept jostling me.

  I’d just about given up, when a sudden bright flash lit our gloomy clearing, followed by a deafening crash. My bowels loosened, and I almost had to go change my jumpsuit. Kyra also flinched and ducked, with the noise.

  “Someone’s shooting at us”, I said, scanning the low, roiling clouds.

  “Relax”, she said. “That was lightning, and thunder. Didn’t you learn about that in school, maybe see it in a vid?”

  “Yeah, I did”, I said. “But there’s a big fucking difference between seeing it on a vid and in person.”

  “Can’t argue that”, she said. “Not much of it going on right now, but that’ll probably change when that heavier stuff gets here.”

  I slogged through the mud over to the pile of hose on the ground, grabbed the end, and headed off in the direction of the lake. Vostock had neglected to mention bears. Or lightning.

  “I don’t know what you have planned”, I said, “but I’m pitching the end of this thing in the water, and getting the hell out of here.”

  Pistol still drawn, she fell in behind me.

  Dragging that damned hose the hundred yards to the lake seemed like the longest walk I’d ever taken. The hose end had a big float and filter attached. Once we reached the edge of the water, I had to shove the contraption as far away from the shore as I could get it, otherwise, it would suck up crap from the bottom, and we’d have to stop and clean out the filter, all of which would take time we didn’t have. Getting it positioned in the heavy wind and rain was not an easy task, as it kept wanting to drift back to the shore.

  I briefly considered wading into the water and pushing it out by hand, until I saw Kyra shoot something crawling up out of the water, twenty feet down from me. I walked over to get a better look. It was long, low to the ground, and black and slimy. There were teeth in the gaping mouth. Lots of them.

  “Croc”, Kyra said. “Local name. The things are supposed to like a nice Chinese dinner. Probably wouldn’t mind you, either.”

  “I’m not going in the water”, I said, as the warm rain ran down my back.

  “Wouldn’t stand around next to it, either”, she said, and went back to eying the jungle around us.

  Before leaving the ship, I’d tucked my knife, the one I’d purchased way back on Io, into the top of my boot. Using it, I cut down two thin trees, saplings, I think they’re called, and built a flat, triangular brace. I attached one end to the float, and left the other two pole ends on the shore, and weighted them down with some rocks. It looked like it might stay put. I had to scavenge my belt to lash the thing together, so I stuck my pistol into an empty jumpsuit pocket. It kept digging into my leg as I worked.

  Twice, Kyra fired at something in the jungle, but I couldn’t see what she’d hit. I kind of expected that if she bothered to shoot, something got shot.

  Finally, I was fairly satisfied with my half-assed bracing job, and radioed for Lola to fire up the pump. It was supposed to pump two thousand gallons a minute, through the eight-inch hose. At that rate, it would take us at least forty minutes to fill all the tanks, not counting any time we lost stopping to move hoses around. Lola had spread the load around, so that we were using eight different cargo bays, one huge container in each. The Enigma had four cargo modules, each with six bays, but we were only using the bottom two. Even then, running the hoses would be keeping Lola, Mike, and Cozi very busy.

  As we stood and watched, the hose fattened with water. Kyra and I would have to stay and keep an eye on it, since it might get clogged, and we’d just have to come back out and fix it, anyway.

  “We’re pumping”, Cozi said.

  “What’s the weather situation?’ I asked, as another bolt of lightning hit somewhere nearby.

  “It’s going to be close”, Eng said, from the Bridge.

  “Angie?”

  “Yes, Boss?”

  “Are you monitoring our tilt?”

  “Already on it”, she said.

  “Any change at all, let me know”, I said. “If that strut fails, we won’t be going anywhere.”

  “Aye, Captain”, she said. “I’m really sorry about the landing.”

  “Don’t worry about it”, I said. “Everyone makes mistakes, even AIs. Besides, you can’t be faulted for believing what your sensors were telling you.”

  “Thanks”, she said.

  “Just keep an eye on things. We’re counting on you to get us out of here.”

  “Oh, I will”, Angie said.

  Kyra, listening in, was looking a little more annoyed than usual.

  “Doon out”, I said. I looked over at Kyra, and raised my eyebrows. She removed her earpiece, and motioned for me to do the same. I took mine out, and turned it off.

  “Something is up with your AI”, she said, “And I don’t like it.”

  “Did you say my AI?”

  “You know what I mean”, she said. “I’m pretty sure she’s up to something.”

  “I agree”, I said. “But, whatever it is, I don’t think she means any harm. At leas
t, not to us.”

  “At least not to you“, Kyra said. I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I didn’t.

  She wasn’t done, anyway.

  “To begin with, where did that ECM package come from? One like that is at least twenty grand. Did you pay for it?”

  “No, I didn’t”, I said. “I only gave the port authority twenty, and that was for everything.”

  “What about the other work that they did?” she said. “And I’m not even going to talk about those UP cruisers which, from a stone’s throw away, couldn’t seem to hit us with a guided missile.”

  “I was kind of glad about that part”, I said. “But, you’re right. I’ll talk to her and see what I can find out. Maybe you could do some discrete poking around, too.”

  “We’ll see”, she said, sticking the earpiece back into her ear.

  I was doing the same, when she froze, looking toward the edge of the jungle. Maybe she heard something, I thought, and a split second later, something large and gray, about twice the size of one of the bears, charged out of the brush, straight toward us.

  In one smooth motion, Kyra drew her left pistol and fired. A bright white ball of fire hit the creature dead on, and the front half of it just sort of came apart, as if it had swallowed a bomb. Chunks of it were still hitting the ground, when she holstered her weapon.

  She walked away from me, along the shore. I followed her.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “No idea”, she said, looking over her shoulder at me. “It was big and fast, and headed our way, so I stopped it.”

  “What kind of pistol did you shoot it with?”

  “Oh”, she said. “Plasma Burst Unit.”

  “Never heard of it”, I said.

  “It’s a blaster“, she said. “Ball lightning in your hand.”

  “Very cool”, I said. “How do I get one?”

  “You can get one off of a dead UPDF Trooper”, she said, looking out across the choppy surface of the lake.

  “Oh”, I said, and stood there with her.

  I didn’t know what else to say, anyway.