Quarantined Planet (7 page)

Earl sits alone on a narrow suspension bridge in the center of a cavern several kilometers below the planet’s surface. If the man didn’t already know what lined the walls on either side, it would be impossible for him to see in such dim light. He runs his fingers through his hair like a comb and gingerly knocks the back of his head against a railing. A mug that had been full of his last ration of cider, the powerful concoction made from fermented alien fruit, is tipped over beside him.

He sings to himself, “Trees swaying in the summer breeze, showin’ off their silver leaves, as we walked by.” Even if he were not inebriated, the lyrics would be hard for him to recall. It’d been too long. Music is one of Earl’s great joys, and now it is all gone. Sure, there are musicians on New Earth, and they had managed to handcraft various instruments, but it just isn’t the same. “Soft kisses on a summer day,” he’s remembering more of the classic Chad and Jeremy tune, “laughin’ all our cares away, just you and I.” Then it escapes him. “Damn it.”

He begins again, “Laughin’ all our cares away, just you and I…”

After an angry sigh, he hits the railing hard with a clenched fist. “Just you and I. Anyone, anyone remember how it goes?”

Earl punches the railing again, injuring a hand. Suddenly he’s sobbing and then yelling into the darkness, “You’re all useless, you know that! Useless!”

Catching his breath, the man is in an instant calm again. “Except to make war on each other.”

Gordon, Chloe, and Nix trudge along through thick, overgrown vegetation. As far as any of them can tell, they might actually be walking atop plants and tree roots, not ground. The sky is a raging mix of electricity and glowing jellyfish creatures.

Gordon’s headset clicks on, “You’re sure we’re going the right direction?”

“I’m sure,” Nix begins to comfort the others. “Although…” He pauses before they enter a clearing one hundred meters in diameter. “I don’t remember this.”

“Great,” Chloe blurts out, attempting to free her left foot from two slippery vines. Not far into this clearing, there’s a change in the ground’s consistency. It’s squishy like waterlogged carpet. “Eww,” Chloe grimaces.

Nix stops short. “Whoa, is the ground moving?”

A small tremble turns violent in a hurry. All three lose their balance and tumble. Then the ground, to their surprise, begins to rise and float, glowing a familiar orange and pink. They’re on top of a jelly creature.

“Move,” Gordon shouts as he and Chloe spring to their feet, reaching the jelly’s floppy edge. “Jump, love!”

He slips and falls off while she hesitates, almost falls backward, and then leaps feet first. Nix can’t get a foothold on the slippery animal.

“Jump, Nix,” Chloe implores the young man.

The creature begins to rise more rapidly.

“Nix, move your arse,” Gordon yells.

At about twenty feet up, Nix has crawled to the edge but doesn’t jump and loses valuable time searching for an escape. In desperation, he dives headfirst into a nearby tree. Branches snap and shatter, slowing his fall.

As the creature ascends, it gives off powerful electrical sparks that combine with the planet’s lightning-filled atmosphere.

Chloe scurries to Nix, who is dazed and unsteady, but able to stand.

“Why didn’t you just
shoot it
, Nix?”

“Nobody shoots anything,” Gordon says, checking the other man’s suit for rips or holes.

“We should have guns. Let’s go find some guns,” Chloe mocks. “Guns, guns, guns…”

“Knock it off.”

After a moment to regain their composure, they forge ahead more cautiously. Chloe stops with each step and uses a foot to gauge the ground’s firmness, until a horrible screeching noise from somewhere above stops her.

All look up in time to see a pitch black, boomerang-shaped flying creature unveil an impressive set of jagged teeth. It slices right through the jellyfish.

Chloe breaks into a run. The others take after her as jelly goo splatters the trees and ground around them.

Just beyond the clearing, snuggled between trees, is Earl’s ship. Chloe tries to open the main hatch.

“He’s changed the code,” she says, pounding on the door. “Amon, open up.”

“Chloe, stop. Calm down,” Gordon says, drowned out by more screeching from above. He points to the hillside door, now in view. “
Bet t
hey’ve gone inside. Come on, Chloe. Get behind me. Nix, watch our backsides.”

“Are we really going in there?”

“You wanted to come along,” Gordon reminds her as they approach the alien bunker entrance. They are soon met with a grisly display—the severed heads of three Alien Greys impaled atop hastily carved wooden stakes. “Bloody hell.”

“Oh, my God,” Chloe gasps.

The door opens automatically, and Gordon is soon alone, his two young crewmates diving for cover. Nix peeks out from behind a shrub, Chloe from behind a tree.

Gordon isn’t shaken easily, but the sight of those severed heads makes him physically ill.
That bloody nutter
has completely lost control
, he thinks.

Nix springs back into the open as he imagines a vine is wrapping itself around his leg. Something spooks Chloe, and she nearly jumps out of her suit.

“Never get off the ship,” she says, “never get off the ship.”

“Come on.” Gordon wraps an arm around each of his frightened crewmates, carrying them past the heads and through the door.

The tough Brit takes point, venturing into near total darkness, while Nix and Chloe fall behind.

“I’m going to be sick,” she says, unable to process the violent display that greeted them.
Don’t throw up in the suit,
she thinks.

The lights come on, and they see Frey, on lookout duty standing by a wall-mounted control pad. He’s not wearing a helmet but is holding an alien rifle. “Well, you’re a little late for dinner.”

One after another, they take their lids off. Gordon first.
“What’s going on here?”

“Where’s Amon?” Chloe asks, shaking and then coughing. The smell of this world is awful, like burning sulfur.

Frey adjusts something on his gun and blasts Gordon with an energy ray.

“Frey, what are you doing?” Chloe stammers. Nix jumps in front of her, fumbling with his weapon, but he’s just not quick enough, and Frey nails him with another blast.

Chloe kneels to check the young man’s condition as Frey gets closer. He takes aim, and she puts her hands up in surrender.

“Frey?” her delicate voice trembles, “what have you done? Why?”

“They’ve just gone to sleep,” he tells her, tinkering with his gun. “A little more juice for you, though.” She turns away. “Earl should never have put you in the pilot’s chair.”

Closing her eyes, she whispers, “Frey, don’t—please?”

“Sweet dreams.”

“I never have those.” Her every muscle tenses. He zaps her.

Sephora
’s engine is spinning more smoothly as Tivis, Jane, and Michael continue making alterations. There’s an abrupt noise from somewhere inside the ship.

Jane is closest to the door. “What was that?”

“Sounded like the main hatch,” Tivis says, peeking out from behind
Sephora
’s anti-matter drive.

“They’re back already?”

“And here I was hoping we’d be leaving without them.”

Jane’s sets down an alien wrench. “I’ll go check…”

Before she can finish, the hatch flies open, and two of Earl’s crew—Wray and Naledri—burst in with weapons ready.

“We’re both so happy you’re here,” Naledri says in her South African accent. “Now, we’re leaving.” She points the gun at Jane’s head.

Tivis smiles. “Hey, relax,” he swaggers up to his former crewmate, “your timing is perfect.”

***

Earl paces the suspension bridge in darkness, mumbling to himself, “So final a thing—so complete. Why is it? It’s left to me? I’m the one. I’m the one to do it.” He gathers an alien device from off the floor. It looks more or less like a toggle switch. “I’m the one…”

He’s startled by Frey walking toward him. “Gordon, Nix, and…Chloe are here,” Frey announces loudly.

It takes Earl a moment to process. He wasn’t expecting anyone but his crew, or maybe some more Greys, to be out
here
. “Chloe?”

“Wray and Naledri left to find
Sephora
,” Frey adds, now standing next to his captain. “I think they intend to come back.”

“
Sephora
?” Still catching up, it takes Earl a few seconds to ask. “Where is she?”

“I have them all sedated in a mover,” Frey continues while turning to leave. “I’ll make sure the others return.”

“Yes, you do that.”

Frey hesitates for a moment, fearing his friend isn’t well. “Are you okay?”

“No one gets left behind,” Earl mutters to himself.

“Sure,” Frey says before walking away.

“Wait, Frey, take me to her.”

Chloe wakes with a piercing scream and leaps from an examination table that’s surrounded by ghastly Alien Grey implements and surgical gear. She knocks over a tray of more scary-looking alien devices while backing into a wall.

Earl steps from the darkness, and she screams again.

“You’ll blow out a tonsil doing that,” he says dryly.

“Amon, is that you?” Her voice is shaky.

“Hello, Chloe.”

“Where are we?” Everything is blurry, and the back of her head is raw. “Ouch. What is this place?”

“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?”

“Bad ones, yes.” In fact, the room calls up terrifying memories of being aboard their ships, alone and at their mercy on those cold, black tables. What painful thing would they do to her next? Her screaming, her crying, her pleading elicited no response from them, which was even more horrifying. “Are we alone here?”

“Yes, Chloe, calm down.”

“Where’s Gordon and Nix?”

“Safe.”

“Did you kill the Greys? Please tell me you didn’t kill them.” She trembles and almost collapses, but Earl is there to catch her.

“You know the air here is barely breathable, but thanks to all their modifications and implants…” Without finishing his thought, he leads her back to the table. “Come on and sit down, before you fall down.”

“Where’s Gordon and Nix?”

“Does take some getting used to, though,” Earl says after a deep inhale.

“Where…where are they?”

“You’ll see them soon.”

“I’m going to be sick,” she says and has a brief bout with nausea, but nothing comes up. “Oh, man. Why are you here?”

“Guess I thought we should explore our surroundings.”

“I thought you were going back to Earth.”

“I am. We are.”

“You found a ship? You know where it is?”

“Exactly where it is.”

“Amon. Did you kill those Greys?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my God, no. Oh, no. Amon, why?”

He was capable of violence, and she’d seen him lose his temper many times. Throw things, hit things
and
even other men
, b
ut she wouldn’t have believed he could do something like this. He could be so gentle. Being in his arms had once felt so safe and right. How could she have been this wrong?

“They took us from everything we love. They had no right to do that. That’s what I believed anyway.”

“But they didn’t. They saved us.” She breaks free of him in tears, drops to her hands and knees, and crawls to a corner to throw up.

“Don’t believe Carver’s nonsense. It’s just as we left it. Just as we leave everything—in complete ruin.”

“What are you talking about?” she asks, trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, what have you done?”

“I was wrong to kill them. I know that now. I know the truth.” He pulls her hair back.

“Don’t touch me. Where are Gordon and Nix?”

He steps away from her after a perturbed
sigh. “I’ll take you to them. I’ll show you everything.”

Guns ready, Frey and Marshall make their way to
Sephora
’s main door and open it. Frey signals Marshall to head toward the ship’s engine room before opening her flight deck hatch.

Just inside
Sephora
’s bridge, Frey is jumped by his Japanese crewmate, who strips the gun away.

A hard blow sends Frey’s attacker into the ship’s helm, forcing Jane and Tivis to scramble for cover.

Wray socks back, and soon both men are wrestling on
Sephora
’s floor until one laser blast hits the back of a chair. Marshall, ready to fire again, thrusts Naledri into the room.

Frey springs to his feet and retrieves the dropped weapon. “You were all going somewhere?” he says, catching his breath.

***

Earl and Chloe zip along in a sleek shuttle car that could hold seven or eight. There are several such vehicles Frey nicknamed “People Movers” after a ride he remembered from Disneyland. It runs along a narrow track suspended in midair. Even Earl could find no explanation for what held the track in place, and he understands alien technology better than anyone.

In just seconds, they cross a great expanse of caverns that widen and narrow but have no visible bottom. Massive stalactites hang ominously from above.

“Chloe Meeks. Always liked that name. It’s kind of Biblical.” Earl smiles. “Very little left to inherit here, Meeks.”

“So how many more do you plan on killing?” the young woman asks in a daze.

“No, I’m done with them.”

“Then what? What are you doing?”

He picks up a gun and turns it about in his hands before pointing it at her chest.
“You know this is useless to anyone but the slate it’s given to. Took a long time getting around that little safety feature.”

“I’ll be sure to let Nix know.”

“Do you love him? Do you make love with him?”

She doesn’t answer and just feels sick again.

“I still love you, you know. In those moments with you, everything else went away.”

“Guns and sex,” she begins, disgusted, “men are such simple animals. Yet you’ve managed to make such a mess of everything.”

“Well, I’m about to clean it up. I’ll do what those slate bastards didn’t have the stomach to.”

“Which is?”

“Oh, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I’m so glad you’re here, beautiful girl.”

The shuttle car disappears into a vertical crevasse.

***

Frey and Marshall lead Wray, Naledri, Tivis, Jane, and Michael away from
Sephora
at gunpoint. It’s slow going on the uneven ground. The sky above has calmed a bit, and that broken moon is visible through a small break in the clouds.

“He’s lost his mind, Frey,” Naledri pleads. “Come with us before we all do.”

“Quiet,” Frey snaps.

“Those engines have never sounded better,” Tivis interjects.

“Just speak up if the ground becomes squishy,” Marshall tells them all in a tone that suggests the conversation is over.

***

Leaving the mover behind, Earl and Chloe walk along a narrow suspension bridge surrounded in almost total darkness. Chloe’s equilibrium is still off from the energy blast, and she struggles to keep up with Earl. He stops in front of a control panel. With a few quick keystrokes, the cave around them is illuminated.

Chloe’s mouth falls open in pure shock. The walls are lined with thousands of human cocoons, just like the one that held her prisoner as a little girl, stretching out in every direction. Only a few are empty.

“They’ve been adding something to our food, Chloe,” Earl says, not even sure his former co-pilot is hearing him, “to keep us feeling slightly better than normal—narcotic like. It also has the added benefit of suppressing our more violent tendencies.”

“Really,” she swallows hard, “so you’re giving them a lesson in irony then?”

“Ah,” he can’t help but chuckle, “there’s the Chloe I’ve missed.”

He’s known her for a long while, ever since she, like everyone on Gaea, arrived there on a transport ship. Twenty or so humans were dropped off at a time for years, all from different decades and all with similar abduction stories. This is where they were stored, every one of them.

“Without the drugs, we began suffering from withdrawal. Much too much for the others. Think I rather enjoyed it. It was different. For me, different is good. Have you eaten lately? Feeling shaky? Skin crawling?” She doesn’t say anything, and he continues, “Well, it takes awhile.”

Bridges, similar to the one they’re standing on, extend up and down for kilometers, each about twenty meters apart, making Chloe more wobbly.

“We’re all supposed to be on Gaea,” she says.

“Gaea. That’s funny.”

Chloe, overwhelmed, stumbles along not far behind Earl. Both stop at a junction point with short bridges leading to either side of the cave and alien elevators going up and down as far as they can see.