Arrival (45 page)

Perhaps this is why our ancestors paid little attention to their impact on their own world’s ecology. So important was their own survival that they either could not see, or chose not to see, the damage they were doing to the beauty that surrounded them at every turn. Before, I could not understand this. But now, even though it still seems shortsighted, the reasons are at least fathomable.

It has finally warmed up to a bearable temperature in my little tent. It’s amazing to me how such flimsy material can hold in any heat at all. Of course, what I refer to as warmth is merely a few degrees above freezing, as I can still see my own breath. So I will endeavor to keep warm using thoughts of you and the children as I drift away for the night. You can’t imagine how much I miss you all.

* * *

Two days later, Mac was feeling measurably worse, although not as bad as Maria had feared. Another set of labs at dawn revealed subtle changes in his body chemistry, the most troubling being a drop in his body pH. If it dropped much further, Mac would become susceptible to cardiac arrhythmia, and possibly death.

Unfortunately, Sara reported similar symptoms of nausea and vomiting, the same as Laura’s, and a bit worse than Mac’s. Assuming the common element was that they were all exposed to the alien creature during the attack, Maria insisted on performing a physical on Tony as well.

The results of Tony’s exam were just as Maria expected, with slight, yet similar changes in body chemistry. Even though Tony did not feel any of the symptoms the others complained about yet, Maria ordered him to bed as well, hoping to slow the symptoms.

With Maria busy caring for her patients, only Lynn and Adia were left to perform the daily chores. Lynn immediately put all of the mission duties on hold, finding that the job of keeping their little camp functioning now consumed all of their time.

By dinner, they were so tired that none of them felt much like cooking. Instead, they chose to eat energy bars and dried fruit, just like they had when they first arrived on Tau Ceti Five.

Maria entered the cockpit, taking a seat at Frank’s engineering station at the rear of the compartment. She looked over at Lynn, who was nibbling unenthusiastically on a piece of dried fruit.

“How are they doing?” Lynn asked.

“Tony still doesn’t show any symptoms other than slight body chemistry changes,” Maria began. “Sara was vomiting quite a bit, but I got that under control with anti-emetics.”

“Is she getting worse?” Lynn wondered, almost afraid to ask.

“Her chems haven’t changed much since this morning, but that’s because I’ve been treating the symptoms, trying to keep her pH from falling, and keeping her hydrated.” Maria leaned back in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling her bangs back out of her face. “Unfortunately, Mac’s not doing so hot. His pH keeps dropping, despite all my efforts to stabilize it. He’s feverish and occasionally delusional, and it looks as though his kidney function is declining.”

“Is he…?”

“Going to die? Well, he’s not crashing as fast as Laura did. Probably because he’s normally strong and healthy.” Maria sighed, a sorrowful look on her face as she remembered her deceased friend. “But all that does is buy us a little time.”

“Are you any closer to discovering the cause?” Adia asked.

“Nope. I’ve been too busy trying to stabilize Mac. Every time I sit down to try to work on the problem, one of them needs my help.”

“Could you use some help?” Lynn asked. “I can probably handle the maintenance tasks myself, at least for a few days anyway. I can have Adia work with you.”

“That would be helpful, yes,” Maria accepted. “She knows her way around a lab. At the very least, she can run labs for me.”

“I’ll speak to her about it,” Lynn promised.

“Lynn…” Maria paused nervously, not wanting to say what was on her mind.

“What is it?” Lynn asked, seeing the trepidation on Maria’s face.

“I don’t think I’m going find a way to stop this.”

“Come on, Maria. Don’t you think you’re selling yourself short?” Lynn wondered. “It’s only been a few days.”

“Yes, and I’m still no closer to understanding why this is happening, let alone how to stop it.”

“Don’t give up so easily,” Lynn encouraged her.

“You don’t understand,” Maria insisted. “Given the right circumstances, I probably could find a cure for whatever the hell this is. But that could take months, possibly years. And in a real laboratory, with a research staff and the proper equipment. It’s only been two and a half days, and this thing has already claimed one life, and is well on its way to claiming a second.”

Lynn was surprised. “Is he that bad off?”

“Forty-eight hours, maybe. I can’t see him lasting much longer than that.”

Lynn looked away for a moment, her mind spinning, panicking.

“Lynn?” Maria asked.

Lynn snapped back to reality. “Are we all going to die?”

“I just don’t know. If they were infected by direct contact with the creature’s blood, then there’s a good chance that the rest of us are safe. But I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop this before…” Maria paused, not wanting to say the words.

She didn’t have to say it. Lynn understood.

* * *

Jack carefully made his way through the knee-deep snow, meticulously choosing his route in an effort to remain hidden. He and Will had been tracking this particular goat-like creature for over two hours now. But each time they were about to get within range of the stout creature, it would move away.

Jack crouched low behind a large fallen tree, pulling out his view-scope to get a range on the elusive creature that vaguely resembled a mountain goat. “Just within range,” he whispered.

“Are you nuts?” Will objected quietly. “He’s gotta be over two hundred meters away!”

“I can hit him,” Jack whispered back confidently.

“I’ll be the first to admit that you’re a good shot, Jack. But you’re not
that
good.”

“You want to spend the whole day out here following that damned thing around?”

“If you miss, he’ll run off and we’ll never catch him,” Will pointed out.

Jack unslung his rifle and carefully laid it across the fallen log. He focused the targeting scope, setting it to maximum zoom. “What’s the crosswind at? Three KPH, maybe?”

“More like four,” Will corrected him.

Jack entered the crosswind data into the rifle’s targeting system. The crosshairs moved to the right a few centimeters. Jack adjusted his aim, realigning the crosshairs onto the creature’s head. He watched for a moment, making sure that it wasn’t about to move. He didn’t want to waste a round if he didn’t have to.

The goat’s head suddenly snapped up, its body frozen in place, ears perking up and shifting forward, as if listening for something far away.

Jack froze. “He’s spotted us.”

Will stared at the animal through Jack’s view-scope. “No, he’s not looking at us,” he whispered back. “Something else has gotten his attention.”

The animal suddenly made a break for the distant rocks, running as if he was trying to escape something.

“Shit!” Jack cursed under his breath. “How the hell did he know we were here? There’s no way he could’ve seen us, and we’re not upwind of him!”

“I was trying to tell you, Jack. We didn’t spook him. Something else did.”

Will scanned the area, panning to the right in the direction the goat-like creature had been looking and the opposite direction from where he had run. “I don’t see anything.” Will’s head suddenly snapped back in fright. “Look!” he exclaimed in a forced whisper. He frantically reset the range on the view-scope. “That’s got to be what it was running from!”

Jack trained his scope on the creature Will had spotted. It was bipedal, with long arms and legs, and was covered with thin, blue fur from head to toe. Although it could stand like a human, when it moved, it used all four of its extremities in the same fashion as an ape would back on Earth. “You think that thing is after the goat?” Jack wondered.

“Maybe.”

“That would mean it’s a meat eater, right?”

“That would be my guess,” Will agreed.

“Well, let’s not hang around to find out,” Jack decided, looking around. “Which way was he headed?”

“Same as the goat, toward the rocks.”

“Then let’s head due west. Maybe that thing will chase the goat back toward us.”

“Maybe we head south, back to camp. I don’t want to go anywhere near that thing.”

“Need I remind you that we’re nearly out of food?”

“Yeah, but that big hairy…”

“Will,” Jack interrupted. “We’ve got the guns, remember?” Jack rose to his feet. “Besides, that big, ugly son-of-a-bitch might be edible as well,” he added as he headed out.

“Doubtful,” Will muttered as he rose to follow Jack.

Jack was moving as fast as he could in the knee-deep snow. Will did his best to keep up, panting heavily with every step. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?” Will asked.

“We were up there… yesterday,” Jack panted as he chugged along. “There’s a long gully… just beyond… those rocks up ahead. The valley… the goat’s running… into… makes a left turn… at the end, with any luck… it’ll jump… into the gully… to escape… and head right… to us. If we get there first… we’ll have a clean shot.”

Will was falling further and further behind. “Wait up, Jack!” he called out. But Jack wasn’t slowing down.

“Get your rifle… ready,” Jack ordered as he rounded the large outcropping of rocks on his right. “You take the goat… and I’ll take…”

Jack turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. There, not four meters directly in front of him, was a massive bear-like creature similar to the one that had attacked Will weeks ago. Jack raised his rifle as the beast charged toward him, but it was too late. The creature leapt at him, knocking him backward into the snow. Without realizing it, Jack had his rifle in between the animal’s massive jaws, wrestling with all his might to hold its head away as it snarled angrily. The creature ripped the rifle from Jack’s hands, sitting up and tossing the weapon aside, letting out a mighty roar as it raised its left paw to strike Jack.

Jack heard a shot from behind him, followed instantly by a wet
thud
as blood splattered from a superficial wound in the beast’s chest. Blood sprayed across Jack’s face as two more shots sounded, followed by two more thuds.

The bear-like creature fell backwards, rolling off Jack, who scrambled away from it, still on his back.

“Are you alright?” Will asked, rushing to Jack’s side to help him up.

“Jesus! Did you see that thing?” Jack exclaimed.

Will looked back at the beast as he helped Jack to his feet. The massive animal looked dazed, unsure of what had happened to him. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Where’s my rifle?” Jack asked as he got to his feet.

The bear-like animal sat back up, checking his wounds. It was bleeding, but was not seriously injured. And its anger was building as it surveyed Jack and Will.

“Forget the rifle!” Will insisted, noticing the creature had shaken off the shock of the initial attack.

Jack also saw the beast as it rose to its feet to resume the attack.

“Shit!” was all Jack could say as he turned to run.

Will was the first to make it back around the rocks. Jack was only a few steps behind him when the creature paused just long enough to let out a bloodthirsty roar.

“Left! Left! Left!” Jack cried out to Will. “Head for the rocks! We’ll never outrun him over open ground!” Jack was nearly neck and neck with Will as he gave the command, reaching out and pulling him to his left as he began to pass him.

Jack could hear the beast panting and growling as it rounded the rocks in pursuit.

The creature spotted its fleeing prey and paused to roar before continuing the chase. While its roar frightened them, Jack realized the creature only did so when it wasn’t running. That meant there would be a little more ground between them. But the noise subsided, replaced with the sounds of the beast’s heavy paws plowing through the snow, and its growling pant.

Jack’s head flicked to the side to catch a quick glance at their pursuer. The creature was only ten meters behind them at the most, and it was gaining quickly.

Just ahead was another outcropping of rock rising about five meters above the snow and was about twenty meters long. If Jack remembered correctly, there was an area of large rocks just beyond it.

“Give me your rifle!” Jack ordered as he came to a sudden stop. Will handed the rifle to Jack when he caught up to him, moving around behind him.

Jack quickly swung around, lowering the rifle to his waist, firing three quick shots at the onrushing creature. The first round missed, spraying up snow behind and to the right of the beast. The second round grazed his shoulder, causing the creature to stumble slightly to the left, stepping into the path of the third round, which entered its eye.

The beast rolled back onto its side, crying out in agony. Jack felt a surge of victory, but it quickly became evident that the creature was only down, not out. “Keep going!” Jack ordered, pushing Will forward. “Head for the rocks… to the right!”

Jack and Will ran around the short ridgeline, toward the rock field. They could hear the beast crying out from behind them, in a combination of pain and blind rage. There was no doubt in Jack’s mind. The creature would not stop until it killed them both.

Another minute of running and they reached the rocks. Leading the way, Jack dodged between them, working his way to higher ground.

“Where are… we going?” Will panted as he followed Jack higher and higher up the mountainside.

“We’ve got to… get to… higher ground!” he explained between breaths. “Get a… better shot!”

They continued up the slope, Jack slinging the rifle over his shoulder to use both hands to climb. In the distance, they could hear the panting grunts of the injured beast following their scent. They had a minute at best to find a good place to take another shot.

Jack made his way between two large rocks, stopping halfway through the crevice. There was another crevice to his right, which Jack headed into. A few more steps, and the crack turned upward.

Climbing as quickly as they could, they made their way to a perch halfway up the pile of rocks. Behind them, they had a clear view of the creature’s approach to their position. Above them was a larger rock, and to the other side was another way back down and around the outcropping on which they stood.

Jack quickly unslung his rifle and took up a firing position. “We’ll make… our stand… here. It’s got to… come up… the way we did… and it’s too big… to make it up… the crevice… as fast as us. If it does… we can escape… down the other side.” Jack looked at his ammo display. “Only four rounds left… We’ve got to… make them… count.” He set the range on his scope, sighting the point where the creature would undoubtedly round the rocks after them. “Pull your… side arm.”

“What good… will a handgun do?” Will argued. “The rifle… barely… knocked him down!”