The Caverns of Mare Cetus (54 page)

   Arielle looked at her Vimap. "Damn it's moving fast. I don't trust it."

   "I've had enough of this Kalo crap," said Edison, watching the Kalo continue its approach. He crouched and aimed the Machine Cutter at it. "Say goodbye." As a small yellow light flashed on near the end of the barrel, indicating he had acquired his target, Edison pulled the trigger, a blue circle of light forming around the end of the gun's muzzle prongs. Instantly a silent flash of light shot out from the barrel, hitting the Kalo dead on.

   As a blanket of blue light enveloped it, the robotic halted and started vibrating noisily. Seconds later, the blue light faded, the robotic's green lights darkening. A few seconds more and the vibrations stopped, the unit going completely dead.

   Edison kissed the rifle, then looked at it admiringly. "Whoa." He gave the others a huge smile. "Did you see that?" He raised the gun above his head and shook it several times. "Bring on that Exterminator!"

   "Even a BEX is heads above a Kalo when it comes to self preservation," said Trent, "but I hope you're right." He looked at his Vimap. "The BEX is already halfway here. It's clipping through this open cavern—right toward us. It's likely it already has a fix on our metallic friend."

   "What do you say we use the bug to bait it then? Might give me the edge I need to take out the BEX."

   Trent nodded. "That just might work. Let's get the women away from here."

   Edison turned toward the women. "This isn't any place for you girls to be right now. It's gonna' get dangerous here. You could get hurt. We're gonna' bait the BEX with the bug…" His words faded; he had just noticed Arielle.

   She had her hands on her hips and was staring him down as if she was a cowgirl ready to draw her gun. "Oh, I get it. That's the thanks we girls get from you guys after all we've been through together. While you big bad boys bait the big bad BEX with the big bad bug, we terror-stricken girlies are supposed to get our fragile little girly butts lost in the darkness now. Is that what you're telling us?"

   Renata and Richelle snickered, then broke into a laugh.

   Edison's expression became deadly serious. "Ladies! I'm not joking. Get your butts out of here! That thing is bearing down on us."

   Richelle's laughter died away. She turned and immediately broke into a bolt, yanking Renata forward and causing her to stumble along with her as if Renata had just been thrown onto a sheet of ice while wearing flip-flops.

   "Not without my girly butt you're not," said Arielle, starting after them.

   "Girl!" snapped Renata when she had gotten her pace in sync with Richelle's. "You can't just take off like that. I'm not a puppet on a string."

   "Sure," answered Richelle. "Sure. I'll try to remember that…"

   After several minutes of hurrying through the open passage, the women agreed they were far enough away from "the bug." They stopped and turned back toward the men, and began watching them with nervous anticipation. They could see Edison crouching behind the Kalo, aiming the MC into the darkness, but they couldn't see Trent.

   Arielle placed her hands on her hips while holding the Iravano in her right hand. Richelle began slowly swinging her left arm to and fro, Renata following with her right.

After a moment, Renata spoke. "How about a telescopic view?"

   Arielle took out her Vimap and pulled up the view. Edison was still crouched behind the Kalo, aiming the Machine Cutter; Trent was now sitting beside him, his back to the robotic, his Vimap in his hand. The sample box containing "the bug" was on top of the Kalo. "Step in with me," said Arielle. She pulled Renata into the image.

   "Where the hell is that thing?" asked Arielle after several moments. She began nervously using her left thumb to twirl the rings on her left hand.

   "No idea," said Renata, her right arm still swinging with Richelle's, who hadn't stepped inside the image.

   Richelle suddenly stopped swinging and yanked on Renata's arm.

   "This all seems so surreal," said Arielle. "Don't you think?"

   Richelle yanked on Renata's arm again, Renata returning the favor. "Stop it already, will you?"

   "Whoa," said Arielle. "What gives? They just got up. They're coming this way."

   Richelle yanked Renata's arm again—hard.

   Renata stepped out of the image. "Would you stop…" Her heart seemed to explode in her chest. She let out with a weak, hollow cry. Directly in front of them, hovering stationary about a meter off the ground, was the BEX! A large brown robotic with a slowly rotating, cookie-shaped central disk nearly a meter across, the BEX was covered with tiny, reflective cerametal plates. The disk, which was about two hand-lengths in height, was capped on top by a large foursided pyramidal module. The bottom of the disk was also capped by a pyramidal module that was a mirror image of the one on top. The pyramids themselves were spinning slowly in opposite directions, a variety of short, silvery metallic probes projecting out of their cerametal-covered faces.

   As Arielle stepped out of the Vimap image and turned toward the BEX, she let out with a gasp of horror. She raised the gun and aimed at the BEX.

   "What do we do?" asked Richelle. "What do we do?"

   Suddenly the robotic jumped to the right, Arielle firing the gun an instant later, powerful echoes bellowing through the expansive cavern. The BEX immediately moved back to its original position, and as the spinning rate of the disk and its pyramidal modules abruptly increased, more sensors began sprouting out of the pyramidal faces.

   "Let's go," said Richelle, tugging on Renata's arm. "Come on. Run! Now!"

   Richelle ran right, pulling Renata behind her; Arielle ran in the opposite direction.

   After about twenty steps, Renata glanced back. The BEX was coming after them. "Faster! Faster!" she cried. After a moment, she glanced to her left only to see the BEX was paralleling them. They ran a short distance farther, then Renata yanked on Richelle's arm and began running back the way they came, now pulling Richelle with her. When she glanced around for the BEX again, she saw it was still trailing behind them.

   Renata immediately turned to the right, sprinted forward a short distance, then turned left, Richelle nearly taking both of them down as she stumbled forward. Renata began shouting out her intended directions. She turned right, ran a short distance, then turned right again. She glanced to her left—the BEX was mimicking every move she made. She abruptly reversed her direction, took about thirty steps, then turned right and continued running. As she heard the shouts of Edison and Trent behind them, she immediately stopped, almost losing her arm to Richelle who continued forward, pulling Renata with her, nearly causing both of them to fall. When they had regained their balance, Renata began leading Richelle toward the men's voices. She could see their lights—not far away. Edison would get it with the Machine Cutter.

   At once Renata felt sick—extremely sick. Her legs seeming to turn into mush, they buckled, and she went down, Richelle falling beside her, face down. Renata rolled on her back, pulling Richelle's arm across her stomach as the women were now on the wrong side of each other.

   "Oh, God, I'm sick," groaned Richelle, her head buried in Renata's shoulder. She began gagging.

   Renata placed her left hand on Richelle's head. "It's hit us with something. I'm all ripped up…" The BEX abruptly moved directly over them, more probes shooting out of its lower pyramid, which was now barely rotating at all, the central disk still spinning like mad.

   "It thinks we're the contamination," said Renata, her eyes transfixed on the BEX as it hovered above them. She swallowed hard, trying to keep herself from throwing up, her stomach almost demanding she let loose.

   "We are the contamination," sobbed Richelle, her voice muffled in Renata's shoulder. "We are…"

   Renata desperately wanted to get up and run, but with the weakness that seemed to have attacked every muscle in her body, she knew she couldn't.

   "Is it too close to them?" asked Edison who was now a short distance away from the women, aiming the Machine Cutter at the BEX. "What's the safe zone on this thing?"

   "About a meter," said Trent.

   "Is that a meter?" asked Edison.

   "Vimap says 1.3 meters."

   "You believe that thing anymore?"

   Renata gasped as she realized the BEX was moving down toward them.

   "Too late!" cried Trent. "It's below a meter."

   At once the spinning of its central disk began markedly slowing, then stopped. Immediately a squid-like gray tentacle shot out from the side of the disk and slipped itself around the handcuff chain, looping around it several times. The tentacle abruptly retracted some, pulling up on the chain, taking the women's arms up with it. Then the BEX began to rise as well. The women cried out as they tried pulling their arms back toward them, but the power of the robotic's magnetic drive was too much for them. The BEX dragged them to their feet, and as it continued to rise, it took their hands high above their heads. Renata glanced around, seeing Trent, Edison, and Arielle crouched nearby, aiming their weapons at the robotic.

   As the BEX continued to climb, it stretched out the women's arms until both of them were standing on their toes. At once a vertical band of white light shot out from the bottom pyramid of the BEX, crossing through the handcuff chain right beside the tentacle that held it.

   "Laser!" cried Renata.

   Both women cried out as the cuffs became instantly hot. They began flailing their arms, trying to pull their hands toward them, but the tentacle held them tight.

Then there was a
snap!

   The women tumbled toward the floor, Renata falling left, Richelle falling right. They scrambled to their feet and began moving away from the BEX in opposite directions, as fast as their wobbly legs would allow. Then Renata heard Richelle cry out. She turned—the BEX was going after Richelle!

   As Richelle glanced at the BEX, she shrieked. She took a few steps, then started into an ungainly run. After a short distance, she tripped, falling to the ground on her stomach, but she continued frantically crawling forward.

   "Now!' shouted Trent. "Now!"

   Edison fired the MC, a pulse of light hitting the BEX with a flash, then spilling around the unit and completely engulfing it. After the BEX shimmied erratically for a short moment, it spiraled into the ground with a thunderous crash of metal against rock, bounced twice, then ended up on its side not far away from Richelle, slowly spinning like a top.

   "Damn!" cried Edison. "This is one sweet gun!"

   Renata stumbled over to Richelle and fell down beside her.

   "It was me it wanted," groaned Richelle. "It was coming after me…"

   Trent and Arielle hurried over to the women.

   "This makes no sense at all," said Trent, appearing perplexed. He helped Renata sit up and gave her a drink of water. "Why didn't it go after the creature? How could it miss it?"

   "I thought I saw a robotics expert around here somewhere," said Renata. "Perhaps we can give him a call." She placed a hand on Trent's shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile.

   As soon as Renata and Richelle felt they were strong enough to walk again, the men helped them to their feet, and the group started forward. Because the women's legs were still a bit shaky, the men assisted them until the effects of whatever the BEX had hit them with wore off. After what seemed like a long time, the group finally reached the end of the Great Lake. They could smell the sulfur they detected when they had first entered it.

   The explorers moved into the upward-sloping seesaw passage in single file, Trent leading the way as he continued to keep his attention focused on his Vimap, but he couldn't pick up any signs that either of the remaining two SeRBEs had entered the cavern. After a short distance, the seesaw section ended, the passage now gently curving to the right. After a short distance more, the passage widened, and the women told Trent and Edison they absolutely needed to rest, SeRBEs or not. The men agreed.

   They all sat down close to each other near one of the walls and passed around water and food. As Renata laid her head back against the wall, she noticed some scattered patches and streaks of yellowishwhite on the opposite wall. "Ari," she said softly. "Do we have a v-log of this area?"

   Arielle had just stuck a fruit bar in her mouth. "I'll have to check," she mumbled. She swallowed her mouthful, followed it with some water, then took out her Vimap and began running through the GEAN v-logs.

   Renata pointed at the wall. "Do you remember seeing those before?"

   Arielle looked up. She stood up and went over to the wall, briefly looking at the patches. As she began a scan, the GEAN interface immediately blacked out. "That's the stuff all right." She reset the Vimap, then sat back down beside Renata and continued to search through her v-logs. "I found it," she said after a moment. "This exact area. Step in with me."

   Renata stepped into the image with Arielle and watched as Arielle began matching the image up to the features on the wall.

   "Look," said Arielle when the image was perfectly aligned. "No streaks. No yellow mineral. Anywhere. Trent! Step into this image."

   After Trent stepped in, Arielle explained the discrepancy they were seeing—the mineral on the wall that wasn't there before. Then Edison and Richelle stepped in, and she had to go through it again.

   Richelle placed a hand on Renata's shoulder. "Kinda cozy in here, huh?"

   "If that stuff is here now," said Arielle, "but wasn't here before, then it has to be moving around the cavern somehow, maybe sublimating like dry ice—going from a solid phase to a gas, then back." She stepped out of the image, the others following. "Then again, that doesn't make any sense. Dry ice sublimates because of temperature changes. When it gets cold enough, it freezes into a solid. When it warms up, it goes directly into a gas. The temperature down here is almost constant. That can't be the mechanism."