Chapter 98

Chapter Ninety-Eight

Connor led the small team along the trail he’d taken a couple nights earlier, this time taking advantage of the daylight to avoid the detritus spread across the downslope. The moss growing around the furrow was greener than normal.

It still muffled the sound of their boots.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t do anything about the clatter of armor or tools, and he and Yemi had a lot of tools.

After the storm, it was a few degrees cooler but still miserable, and now there was a mustiness to the alien smells.

He turned back to get the others’ attention. “Five hundred meters.”

Yemi was three meters back and to the left. Sweat slicked the older man’s dark face, but he smiled. “Yemi runs five hundred meters.”

The Moon twins looked better off, but Elise was gasping. She wasn’t used to the weight of Martienne’s armor and complained that it chafed everywhere but especially the armpits and ribs.

Connor didn’t have time for more adjustments. He hoped the archaeologist was just showing she was a bit soft for the job. He would see what he can do when they reached the wreck.

Tim keyed his mic. “We’ve got one of the big bugs tailing us.”

“Keep an eye on it.”

A red dot appeared several dozen meters back and to their left, roughly two hundred degrees on an imaginary circle laid flat, with zero degrees being their heading.

What had people said before? Where there’s one, there’s two?

Something like that.

When the ship came into sight, the fatigue that had been slowing the others disappeared. Connor picked up the pace, and they kept up.

A couple minutes later, they were at the wreck, panting and sweating.

He checked the stopwatch: they were behind schedule. “Tim, Tom, on top of the hull.”

The twins were doubled over, but they looked up and walked around the ship, looking for the best way up.

Connor shrugged off his backpack and dropped his tool sack, then drew his swords. He drove those into the ground, then pulled glow sticks and activated them. The sunlight wasn’t going to be enough for what they had ahead of them.

In the cargo hold, the green glow reminded him of the strange light he’d seen coming from Selen’s cabin.

That had been a trick of the eye and too little sleep.

He helped Elise into the cargo hold. “I don’t see any new strands, but those spider things might still be in here. You see one, you stomp on it.”

She blinked, then nodded.

If one of the things made a run for it, she obviously wasn’t going to stop it.

Yemi passed in the tools, and Connor took them up to the vehicle. It looked sealed, but bugs had a way of slipping through even seals. How else could the spider-things have gotten into pipes?

How could they have gotten into such small spaces, period?

This planet had far too many questions. That was just one more reason to dust off.

After helping Yemi inside, Connor pointed up the ladder. “I’m going to grab the replacement parts. See if you can get that vehicle open.”

The mechanic hefted the large tool pack and flashed a bright smile. “Yemi opens the vehicle.”

Connor kept his eye out for any sign of the black snake-thing.

How many oddities could a place like this planet have?

Giant bugs?

Big scorpions with wings?

Snake-like things with wicked rows of teeth?

So many of the things that had been brought from Earth to the colony worlds centuries ago—even if they were creepy—had analogs here, and those analogs were much more disturbing.

They were nightmares amped up beyond anything Connor could have dreaded.

In the engineering section, he sheathed the swords again to keep them handy, then went to work popping panels until he found the recycler and water pipes he needed. They were in decent shape but not perfect.

Stress from the crash, he reckoned.

It took longer to get them disconnected than he’d expected, putting them further behind schedule.

As he headed down the steps, Tim connected. “That big bug? It has buddies.”

Of course it would. “How many?”

“Six so far.”

“Go ahead and drop two of them. Away from the others, if you can.”

In answer, automatic gunfire roared through the radio.

Connor found Yemi under the vehicle, banging away with a hammer. That wasn’t a good sign, especially with the locks that had held it into place already removed.

But the mechanic laughed and slid out from under it. “Yemi finds two broken bundles.”

“How much longer to fix?”

“Yemi fixes. Batteries charge. Yemi goes.”

That seemed miraculous. Connor had become used to failures and was coming to expect them.

Of course, now they had to figure out a way to get the vehicle out of the cargo hold. The airlock was too small, and the forward hatch meant for loading larger items like the vehicle was twisted from the crash.

Yemi’s attention drifted to the hatch. “Yemi thinks of idea.”

“For…?”

The mechanic shambled to the tool bag, massaging the small of his back. “Connor brings explosives.”

“Improvised grenades.” In case they were overrun again.

But the automatic gunfire had stopped. Hopefully, that meant the bugs had been intimidated.

Yemi looked the explosives over, then hobbled over to the big, damaged hatch. “Connor makes explosives and tears the hatch open?”

Connor walked to the hatch and stomped. Daylight leaked through a corner.

It was seriously compromised. He could remove the explosives from the fragmentation shells he’d assembled and spread the substance along the edge of the hatch. That would blow it clear.

Would there be enough room to squeeze the vehicle out, though?

He took the bag and disassembled the grenades.

Instead of just blowing out the hatch, it made more sense to tear out section of the hull along with the hatch. That would give them the room they needed. This was something Rudy would have been better at. Or Ibrahim.

Just as Connor set the first charge, Tim connected. “Connor?”

“Go ahead.”

“More bugs. A lot more.”

“How many?”

The Moon twin whispered. He was counting. “Twenty-two.”

“That’s too many. Get down here.”

Connor placed the last of the charges. He didn’t have time to make it pretty. The hull was already weakened, and that would have to do.

When the twins came in through the airlock, he pointed to the ladder. “Everyone up. I have no idea how big of a blast this will be.”

They scampered up to the deck above, and Connor readied the radio control. Normally, this would be something he’d plan out and compute for a couple hours. He’d run tests until he had confidence.

Now?

He pressed the button, and the ship shuddered at the same moment that the explosion roared around them.

Once again, his ears rang, but this time, he could still hear.

He led them down. “Hurry it up.”

It was the right call: The hull had been blown clear, and through it, he could see the giant bugs moving forward.

Yemi scooped up his tools and hurried toward the vehicle. “Yemi drives!”

That was enough for the others. They shook off the effects of the blast as well as they could, gathered up the gear, and slid into the vehicle through the sliding side door.

Connor slammed it shut and dropped onto a bench next to Elise, taking a moment to help her with the harness.

A shudder ran through the vehicle, then it moved.

Yemi whooped, and the thing lurched forward, metal scraping on metal.

A moment later, something thudded against the vehicle, which shuddered.

But they sped back up again.

From the driver compartment, Yemi’s whoops grew louder. “Yemi exterminates!” The mechanic howled with laughter.

They hit something—another bug—and Elise smiled hopefully.

Connor returned the smile. “We’ll be okay. I need to radio Selen.”

“Before you do.” The archaeologist held out her pocket computer. “I thought you should know that I downloaded the helmet data. You can see where I was, just like I said.”

“I trusted you.”

Her smile faltered, and she looked away. “Look at it. Please.”

He activated the video and started to key his mic to call Selen.

Then stopped.

Elise had started the video at a point where the integrated combat system was showing the team status. It was just before the battle, when people were dropping into position.

All the weapons systems showed green.

But as he watched, the systems with dud ammunition flickered amber.

He stopped the playback.

What she’d shown him wasn’t possible. Guns didn’t just fail like that. Dud rounds wouldn’t cause an amber light.

The only thing that could cause such a problem was…

Sabotage.