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."
*
No comments:
Post a Comment