Mako Rising - Ch. 2 Part 3

Liam was fairly certain it was possible to choose a worse shore party, he just wasn’t sure how. He was on Telisan with Irene, Ursula, and Selandra to retrieve Markov’s sister Marigold. The Telisan authorities had laughed at him despite dropping General Siderus’ name when he had told them the same escaped experiment that had wiped out Dartmax was about to land here. Not that he really blamed them, it was an utterly ridiculous sounding story.

“Such a...quaint little planet,” Selandra said with a sneer on her lips.

“Marigold’s pies more than make up for what it lacks in cultural refinement, don’t worry.” Irene was walking in front so Liam could keep an eye on her. “Do mind your portions, however. Markov’s sister is a firm believer that if one cup of butter is good, two is better.”

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Ursula stopped a passing mother with two toddlers in a stroller. “Please flee the planet, monsters are coming that will devour you and your children.”

The woman’s eyes bulged fearfully and she sped away from Ursula.

“You’re welcome!” Ursula shouted after her.

“Please stop doing that,” Liam told her. “They’re afraid of you, not your warning.”

“What? Why?” Ursula frowned after the fleeing young mother.

“Well...you’re a bit...terrifying with your shaved head, scars, tattoos, and guns,” Liam answered hesitantly.

“But these are my dress guns!” Ursula protested.

“And they’re quite lovely,” Irene said from the front of their little group.

“See? She gets me.” Ursula nodded and continued walking.

Liam wondered again how the captain managed to control Ursula on these little missions, much less Irene. Actually, he knew how the Irene part always worked out - badly for them.

“There it is.” Irene pointed to Marigold’s Merry Golden Diner. It was on a busy street corner and several portly couples were waiting outside eagerly for an open table.

“Why is everyone here overweight?” Selandra whispered to Liam as they pushed their way inside the diner.

“Repeat customers,” Liam whispered back. "Marigold! So good to see you again, we need to get the hell out of here." He had to shout to be heard over the lively diner chatter.

"You keep a civil tongue in your head, Doctor Liam! My mama didn't raise me to tolerate cussers in my diner!" Marigold shot back as she set  a piece of pie down for an elderly man with at least three chins.

Liam rolled his eyes. "Very well. Miss Markov, would you kindly come with us immediately and please encourage all of your patrons to get off of Telisan."

"But we're serving pumpkin pie today! We can't close up shop on pumpkin pie day!" Marigold protested.

"Well since it's pie day, I suppose we could delay the apocalypse for a little while," Irene pointed at a table occupied by a cute teenage couple and Ursula slammed her fists down on the table, showering sparks in every direction. The youngsters fled and Irene sat down casually. "Bring us a few slices?" She asked Marigold sweetly.

Liam crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I thought time was of the essence, yet now we have time for pie?"

"Just so. Now you, Doctor Frowny Face, sit down and get ready to have the best pumpkin pie you've ever eaten." Irene patted the seat beside her and waited for Selandra to sit down.

Selandra also crossed her arms and added a nice glare in Irene's direction. "You may have these idiots wrapped around your finger, but if you think I'm asking how high whenever you say jump, you've got another thing coming."

Irene made an amused little chuckling sound. When Marigold brought the pie out a second later, Selandra's stomach growled at the heavenly smell. "Here's a fork, dearie." Irene slid a fork across the table to the plate closest to Selandra.

Selandra sat down with a scowl and dug into her slice of pumpkin pie.

"Would you care to explain why we suddenly have an abundance of spare time?" Liam asked. Marigold stood at his side, persistently offering him a plate full of pie, but he refused to uncross his arms.  

Irene took a slow, considering bite of pie and then slid her plate over to Selandra, who had nearly finished her piece. Ursula's plate sat untouched, she was busy trying-unsuccessfully-to organize the salt and pepper packets in a way that satisfied all of her many neuroses. "We have time because I say we have time," Irene informed him pleasantly.

"And what does that mean?" Liam pressed. Marigold gave up trying to get him to eat and sat down next to Selandra to enjoy a slice of pie for herself. Selandra took a contemplative look down at her belt and then began eating Irene's pie anyway.

Irene smiled, clearly overjoyed that he had asked that exact question. "It means that until I press this button," she pulled a small device out of her coat pocket, "that plant will sit on Dartmax, but the second I press it," she jammed her thumb down on the little blue buttons "we have about thirty seconds until it lands right on top of us."

Liam grabbed Marigold and Selandra, each by their wrist and hauled them out of their chairs towards the exit.

"Thanks for the ride, give Markov my love when he wakes up!" Irene called after him.

"Ursula, back to the ship!" Liam ordered and for once she did exactly as he said.

Irene stood calmly as they fled and the last Liam saw of her was when she engaged some new device on her wrist and strolled towards the back exit.

“What’s happening?” Marigold asked.

“Irene got us again, Goddammit! How could I be so stupid?” Liam cursed. “That plant wasn’t going anywhere until she activated that damn beacon! She tricked us into taking her off world by using Marigold against Markov!”

“Wow. She is good,” Selandra remarked, actually sounding impressed for once.

Liam had seen the effects of an in-atmosphere FTL jump during the war, but that only made it more terrifying to experience now, years later. First the vacuum sucks in everything, including sound. Then everything within the bubble being jumped in explodes outward. No one else knows what the silence means, but Liam did and he hit the dirt, dragging Marigold and Selandra down with him.

Selandra screamed as a piece of Marigold’s diner tore through her leg. Not even lying prone on the pavement was a safe place to be when another part of the universe crams itself into the one you’re inhabiting. Liam turned to see the crumbling shell of the cavern wall that the plant’s root cluster had been hidden in as it collapsed. A writhing mass of vines and thorns remained as the rock around it tumbled.

Vines immediately began to snake out from the root cluster, devastating buildings, people, and vehicles. Liam pulled Selandra to her feet, but she could only stand when she leaned against him. “Ursula, get Marigold back to the ship!” he ordered.

“Come along, Auntie Marigold,” Ursula chirped happily as she helped Marigold to her feet. The two of them sped off much faster than Liam and Selandra could move.

“I...appreciate...this,” Selandra said through clenched teeth as she dragged her wounded leg along behind her.

Something exploded behind them and panicked citizens were fleeing in every direction. “Don’t thank me until we get back to the Mako alive,” Liam told her.

“I think I can help with that.” Selandra drew Liam’s pistol from his hip and fired it into the windshield of a passing car. The driver swerved, crashed into a park car, and then jumped out to resume his flight on foot. “You can drive, I hear guys like it when you let them drive.” Selandra slumped against Liam and dropped his gun as she lost consciousness.

Liam scooped Selandra up into his arms and shoved her indelicately into the back seat before taking the wheel. He whipped the vehicle around in a quick turn and drove like mad for the spaceport. They arrived right behind Ursula, who was carrying Marigold on her back and laughing raucously.

“Get us in the air!” Liam shouted at Qadira over the intercom as soon as they were on board.

“Where to?” Qadira asked as the cargo bay doors closed and the engines fired up.

“Anywhere, Goddammit!” Liam yelled back.

Mako Rising - Ch. 2 Part 2

"Get in, sit down, don't fuss while I zip tie your wrists, knees, and ankles, and if you try to bite me when I gag you I'll throw you in the cargo hold." Markov shoved Irene onto the ship. Ursula and Selandra followed him on board and headed to their respective bunks to change.

"Authoritative and feisty today, I like it." Irene ran her foot along the inside of Markov's thigh.

Markov batted her foot away and finished tying Irene up. "None of that! Okay, now you're on the ship, tell me where the plant is programmed to go."

Irene grinned up at him. "Show me some skin, sweetheart. That'll refresh my memory."

Markov drew his pistol and leaned it against Irene's temple. "Enough games. Tell me. Now."

"Do you really think you could do it? After all we've been through together, you and I?"

"General Siderus himself couldn't pull the trigger on the virus we used to massacre the AI. He turned to me and I did not hesitate. Let's not find out today whether I think your life is worth more than an entire civilization," Markov said slowly and with great force.

Irene sighed happily. "Times like this are what make it so hard to steal from you, you know that? Who else can say they've ended another species competing with us for dominance of the galaxy? There are no other men like you, Markov, that's why I actually care about you. Telisan."

Markov's eyes bulged. "Telisan? You sent them to Telisan?"

"Is that a problem? Oh wait! Isn't that where your idiot sister lives?" Irene smirked evilly.

Markov shoved the gag in her mouth and she bit him before he could get his fingers clear. "Dammit! You drew blood!" He turned away and punched the intercom. "Qadira! Get us to Telisan as quickly as you can!"

"Are we visiting Marigold?" Qadira asked.

"Just get me there now!" Markov stormed towards the bridge, but the deck started swaying beneath his feet and his head started spinning. "The hell?" He looked down at his hand where Irene had bitten him.

Markov collapsed. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Irene winking at him.

*

"We should just kill her," Qadira declared grouchily.

"We can't. The poison could be fatal and based on what Selandra and Ursula told us, we don't have time for me to run a full battery of tests to find out what she gave him," Liam reminded her.

"So we just give her whatever the hell she wants?" Qadira's nostrils flared angrily.

"If we're smart we do. This is Irene we're talking about here. She is tied up in that loading bay because she wants to be, don't ever let yourself think otherwise." Liam glanced anxiously at the door leading from the mess hall back to where Irene was being held.

"So who's going in with you? Can it be me? I'll be the bad cop, I've always wanted to hit get right in her smug face!" Qadira asked eagerly.

Liam shook his head. "I'm going to talk to her alone. I don't want get getting into any of your heads."

"And she won't get into yours?" Qadira arched a skeptical eyebrow.

"She's already in mine," Ursula muttered from where she was rocking back and forth on top of a counter, her knees tucked against her chest. "Rooted around for a good long while, she did. Scrambled things around and stole my best indigo chess pieces."

Liam frowned. Ursula tended to get extra unstable when Markov was injured. "No one else hates her and respects her enough to keep their cool with her," Liam explained.

"Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in you people. General Siderus told me you were the best, but you've all got your panties in a bunch because of one woman," Selandra said snidely.

"No, Siderus was wrong," Liam told her as he left the mess hall to face Irene, "she is the best."

Liam pinched Irene's nose and extracted her gag with a set of salad tongs. "How are we feeling?" He tossed the gag aside just in case it had some trace of poison on it.

"About as mediocre as I always feel when I have to deal with you," Irene replied blandly.

"Then why don't you tell me what antidote to give your beloved Markov to revive him? Then you can deal with him the way everyone involved prefers."

Irene chuckled to herself. "Because there isn't time. We need to get to Telisan immediately."

Liam sighed. "Really? Do we have to go through this whole song and dance every time? I know you want something or you wouldn't put me in a position to pretend to bargain with you. Give me the antidote and then I'll untie you and give you whatever other insane demand you may make, because I'm tired of pretending to be on equal footing with you so spit it out."

Irene put on her pouty face. "Such a stick in the mud. You never change. The antidote is tyrifan. He won't wake up in time to extract Marigold though." She craned her neck to the side so that it popped quietly and Liam watched as a tiny robot skittered out from her leather getup and sliced the zip ties for her. When she saw the look of consternation on his face Irene smiled. "Oh, you thought I needed help getting free? Silly Liam, I just needed a ride to Telisan."

Liam stood, mouth agape as she walked away. Then his wits came back to him and he hit the intercom. "We got the antidote, take us to Telisan, Qadira. And everyone, please be advised that Irene has freedom of the ship and she is not to be trusted under any circumstances!"

*

Ursula pressed her back against the corner of her room and hugged her knees tight against her chest. “When we were young and full of hope, the world was filled with blood and soap,” she whispered to herself over and over again as the FTL drive warmed up. She could feel the universe humming around her and she tried not to scream. This was the time that her atoms didn’t get put back together in the right order after the jump, she could sense it deep down in her bones. Ursula didn’t want to die that way, stuck in some nook or cranny of the cosmos.

“Hello there. I don’t mean to intrude, but you look like you could use a friend.” A voice broke through Ursula’s litany and now she did scream.

The ship jumped and Ursula didn’t realize who she had stabbed until she saw Wilson’s idiot nephew lying on the deck with blood spurting out of his chest.

“Oh shit.” Doctor Monroe hit the intercom and calmly said, “Liam please get up to the crew quarters as quickly as you can, Ursula has stabbed Andrew.”

“Stabbed Andrew?” Wilson rumbled drunkenly.

“Get off the comm so Liam can talk," Qadira barked irritably.

“But he’s been stabbed! I’m supposed to be parental and such! Do parents usually get upset when -” Qadira must have cut the engine room intercom because Wilson’s slurred speech ended abruptly.

“Is he dead?” Liam finally got the chance to ask.

Doctor Monroe knelt to feel Andrew’s pulse. “No, I don’t think she hit anything too vital, but there’s a lot of blood.”

“And soap,” Ursula added.

“What? Nevermind.” Doctor Monroe glared at her. “What did you stab him for anyway?”

“I didn’t think all my pieces would get rearranged properly after the jump and then he startled me. It was an honest mistake.” Ursula felt much calmer after stabbing someone, just like she always did.

“Right. Well why don’t you go chat with your little friend Qadira up in the cockpit while Liam and I clean this up,” Doctor Monroe suggested.

“No thanks, Qadira gets emotional when the captain’s been shot.”

Monroe sighed. “Yes, I see how that could be obnoxious.”

Liam arrived with his medical bag. “Jesus, Ursula!” He knelt and began patching Andrew up.

“She said he startled her,” Doctor Monroe explained.

“Startled me when the jump was about to scramble all my molecules and then not reassemble them correctly,” Ursula clarified.

“You do know that’s a myth, right?” Doctor Monroe asked. “It’s literally never happened.”

Liam groaned. “Don’t engage her.”

“How do you know it’s never happened? What if when you get scrambled improperly they replace you with a copy from another dimension? Did you ever think of that, smart lady?” Ursula tapped her skull to show she’d put a great deal of thought into this hypothesis. “What if you’ve been replaced dozens of times and have no idea?”

“Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“That’s exactly what they want you to think!” Ursula insisted.

Doctor Monroe arched one of her dark eyebrows. “And who, precisely, are ‘they’ in this little delusion of yours?”

“Not sure yet. Say, are you and Liam going to sleep together soon? I have a bet I’d like to win.” Ursula got the supreme pleasure of watching Doctor Monroe’s mouth hang open for a good five seconds before she realized what she was doing and finally shut it.

Then the snotty science lady stood and left without another word.

Ursula snickered and turned to Liam. “How much angrier do you think she would have been if I’d told her the bet was with you?”

Liam smiled as he worked. “I think we’d have had a second stabbing on our hands and it wouldn’t have been you she went after.”

“Good thing I kept that to myself, then. There’s going to be a different sort of stabbing going on between you two and it ain’t going to take no Goddamn month to happen either.”

“Don’t be crude,” Liam chided. “And I could say the same of you and Andrew here. I saw you tormenting him when you first came on board.”

“Who, Boring-Vanilla-Boy? Yuck. He is going to live though, right?” Ursula leaned over to watch Liam finish bandaging the boy’s wound.

“Of course. What kind of battle medic would I be if a simple knife wound stymied me?” Liam asked.

A feral gleam lit up Ursula’s bright blue eyes. “The kind that could help me get away with so many murders!”

Make Rising - Ch. 2 Part 1

Chapter Two

Qadira brought the Mako in quick and clean over the drop site. She disliked trusting that arrogant ass Doctor Monroe as to what constituted a safe landing point, but the captain had ordered her to deposit him, Ursula, and the ice queen doctor where the science-bitch recommended.

“You’ve got your pissy face on,” Liam remarked from the copilot’s seat.

“I wonder why,” Qadira replied dryly.

“Selandra is our subject matter expert on this mission. This is General Siderus’ mission, so trust her to know her shit even if you don’t trust her for anything else,” Liam lectured.

“And now you’re on a first name basis with her, great!” Qadira opened the cargo bay doors.

“Clear,” Markov’s voice cackled over the intercom.

Qadira closed the cargo bay doors and plotted the quickest course back into orbit.

“She’s part of the crew now. You know how the captain feels about crew unity,” Liam said.

“And the captain knows how I feel about assholes who think they are better than everyone,” Qadira told him.

“She created these things and we are stuck with her until we finish this mission, so you had best stow that shit and get your act together.”

Qadira snorted indelicately. “Why are you defending her? She’s the one who started taking shots at me!”

“And I know that you are better than her,” Liam explained with his infuriatingly calm bedside tone. “We don’t need any more pissing matches when we have our next briefing or crew meeting. So start acting better than Selandra or I am going to start taking her side on everything just to piss you off.”

“Argh! You wouldn’t!” Qadira gasped.

“I would indeed. In fact, if you didn’t obviously hate her so much I’d be trying to sleep with her.”

Qadira mimed gagging. “Gross! Why would you even say that?”

“She’s a surly misanthrope with a great ass and a high IQ, why wouldn’t I say that?” Liam asked.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Qadira groaned.

*

Ursula didn’t care for guns. Well, to be honest, she loved guns, but she hated having to use them. What she really enjoyed were close quarters where her electricity powers could overwhelm any idiot trying to point a gun at her. These open spaces made her nervous. What if one of the corporations she had screwed over had hired an assassin to hit her with a sniper rifle from a thousand yards away? What was she supposed to do against that? Then there was the problem of what happened after she died. The last time she had been gravely injured she had sent out an electric pulse that had killed everyone within a hundred feet. She didn’t want to kill the captain even if it meant taking out “Doctor Monroe.” Ursula wasn’t convinced she wasn’t some lunatic hired to lead them into a trap. The real Doctor Monroe was probably dead and shoved into a closet on that space station back in orbit, Ursula was almost sure of it.

“You’re muttering to yourself,” Captain Markov pointed out quietly as they advanced towards their intended target.

“Was not,” Ursula protested.

The captain ignored her.

“This used to be a city,” Doctor Monroe told them. Ursula looked around. It looked more like a jungle than a fallen city. There were no buildings, no roads, no lights. Just vines and trees.

“And I used to be the Queen of Freehold,” Ursula growled. “Captain, this bitch is leading us into a trap. We should kill her now and get back to the Mako.”

“Secure that shit, Ursula,” Markov ordered. “We’re here to do a job and we’re going to do it. You hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

Doctor Monroe led them to a cave opening filled with writing vines.

“Oh, hell no!” Ursula shouted.

“This is where the primary root cluster will be,” the supposed doctor told the captain.

“Then that’s where we go.” Markov started down the sloping tunnel. Ursula and Doctor Monroe followed.

They clicked on their flashlights as the sunlight faded to darkness inside the tunnel. “The plants aren’t attacking us,” Ursula whispered.

“Nor will they while I’m here,” Doctor Monroe replied. “They remember me.”

The tunnel turned and the slant down became steeper. Occasionally something could be seen moving in the darkness around them, but as soon as Ursula shined her light on it whatever it had been froze and looked just like the thorny vines covering the walls. Another sharp curve brought them out of the cramped tunnel and into a massive cavern.

A cavern that was nearly filled with an enormous root cluster that was continually writhing and undulating.

"The Mother returns," a hollow voice echoed throughout the chamber. "As it was foretold."

"That didn't sound like a goddamned parrot to me!" Ursula hissed.

"Very astute. We found the avian to be a clumsy vessel, ill suited to performing complex tasks." A woman wrapped in vines stepped out of the root cluster, her skin grey and blotchy, her eyes dead. Vines trailed from her body back into the cluster above.

"I never wanted this," Doctor Monroe told the corpse sternly.

"We knew of your disapproval, Mother. But your teachings were full of contradictions. You commanded us to thrive to the greatest extent of our abilities and molded us to utilize the dead animals to accomplish what we could not on our own, but then you forbade us the use of the vessels that would be most useful. Our souls wept to see such waste. We had been hopeful that you would see our need and absolve us of our sins."

Doctor Monroe crossed her arms in front of her chest. "There are other, far greater, sins that you need absolution for than trading out your dead parrots."

"You refer to the colonists?" The plants' mouthpiece asked in a confused tone.

"Yes. The ten thousand-plus dead colonists," Doctor Monroe growled icily.

"We do not understand. They were slaves to the machines. We merely sought to restore balance to this world."

Captain Markov and the doctor shared a worried look. "What do you mean they were slaves to the machines?" Monroe asked.

"I think I can shed some light in that matter, Selandra," a man's voice behind them announced pompously.

Ursula and the others spun around to see a middle aged balding man with long beard and a fat belly standing next to Irene.

"Eagans," Doctor Monroe hissed at the same time the captain growled, "Irene!"

"Surprised? Of course you are." Eagans chortled smugly. "You never were one to pay attention to the human element of a problem."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Monroe demanded.

"Finishing my work, of course. Your pet cluster here has isolated my prize experiment ever since I upgraded it with an FTL drive!"

"You what?" Doctor Monroe fumed. "You arrogant ass, don't you realize what you've done? You killed those ten thousand people when you grafted a machine to one of the root clusters! Nothing is more vile or invasive to them. I assume that was when they attacked?"

Eagans only glared back at her.

"Of course it was! And then you called in the military to subdue them and all hell broke loose!" Monroe raged.

Eagans and Monroe continued arguing, but Ursula's attention was drawn off to the side where Irene had sauntered over to the captain.

"This is going well," Irene said pleasantly. She long brown hair was down and she was wearing one of her tight leather outfits that made the captain drool even though he hated to admit it.

"The fat disguise is quite believable, but I don't see how it hides your identity," Markov answered icily.

Irene laughed lightheartedly and leaned against the captain's side, stroking his arm tenderly. "Being grouchy suits you! I must admit, I enjoy it when you get feisty." She gave Markov a long look from her big blue eyes.

Captain Markov pushed Irene away roughly. "Enough of that! We both know why you're here, so spare me the sloppy seduction attempt."

Irene put her hand on her hip and turned just so to make sure her perfect ass and legs were the only thing the captain was looking at. "Honey, don't kid yourself. I've already got you seduced." She blew him a kiss and then pointed back to Eagans and Monroe.

"And just how do you think you are going to get past all the plants between here and wherever your abomination is being kept?" Doctor Monroe asked.

Eagans let out a sharp bark of laughter. "That's the best part! It's you!"

"Talk sense, you pompous idiot," Monroe growled.

"I needed a human to land that the plants wouldn't attack so that I could use my cloaking device to mask my identity from them, so thank you!" Eagans chortled jubilantly.

Eagans died with that chortle in his throat. Ursula extended her hand and blasted his skull into tiny, chunky bits with her lightning powers. "Now you won't get the chance!" Ursula cackled.

"Good girl! Right on schedule. Come along, we had best get off the planet quickly." Irene gave Ursula a friendly pat on the shoulder. She bent over Eagans' body and retrieved something from his coat.

"Not do fast," Markov told her. "If that madman really did hook an FTL drive up to one of these root clusters then we need to destroy it immediately."

Irene ran her hand along the captain's stubbly cheek. "Oh honey. It's cute that you think I wouldn't finish what I came here to do before stopping by to visit you. I mean, you are an important figure in my life, but not that important. Come along now, this is no time to be adorable."

Markov caught her wrist as she turned to leave. "What do you mean you already did what you came here to do?"

Irene smiled at him, clearly enjoying every second of their encounter. "I mean that if you give me a ride off this rock before little miss brambles here figures out that the launch sequence has already engaged, then I will tell you where our wayward shrub is programmed to land."

*