Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier. (3 page)

Dang cried out
and kicked, and the long furry cylinder crawled off in overdrive, making a
hissing sound.  It stopped a couple of meters away, rearing up about a third of
its three meter length, mouth open to expose long fangs, dripping with some
viscous looking fluid.   He really didn’t like the looks of that stuff, and he
aimed the pistol at the creature and thumbed off the safety.  His implant
linked with the gun and lined up the shot perfectly.   A squeeze of the trigger
and the head of the
snake
was gone.  The body fell to the surface,
orange liquid flowing onto the frozen water and melting down into the packed
snow.

And another
dozen heads popped up, looked over at the murder of their fellow, and
immediately headed that way.  Dang jumped to his feet, took aim, and started
firing while he backed away.  It was almost like being in a shooting gallery,
picking targets, aiming, shooting.  The hissing of the mammalian snakes
competed with the hiss of high velocity pellets cleaving the air, and the smack
of them hitting their targets.  Dang almost set his pistol to full auto as the
creatures seemed to crowd in, as if he had settled in for the night within a
nest of them.  He resisted the urge.  Ammunition was scarce, and when this
magazine was gone, the pistol became nothing more than a not very good club.

A sharp pain ran
up his left leg.  Dang looked down to see one of the snakes had sunk its fangs
into his calf, right through a seam that was a repair.  The seam did not carry
the same toughness as the rest of the suit, and the fangs had penetrated through
and into the flesh and muscle beneath.  The sharp pain of the bite was
immediately subsumed under the agony of venom injected into the muscle.  The
fangs, or at least one of them, must have entered an artery, because the pain
swiftly ascended his leg and spread through his torso.  Along with the agony
came a numbness that threatened to make Dang fall to the ground.

The man fired
down at the snake, cutting it in half.  The head dropped from his leg, and he
staggered back, unable to feel his feet.  His vision was blurring, and he was
having trouble aiming.  He continued to fire, but many of the shots were
missing their target.  The pistol went dead the next time he pulled the
trigger, and looking down at the counter through the blur his sight had become
he saw the ammo counter was at zero.  And there were still snakes heading at
him.

Dang stumbled
into a turn and started away at the fastest pace he could manage, a jog.  The
forest was blurring around him, his heart beating like a hammer in his chest,
and he wondered if his internal nanites would be able to handle this poison. 
Breath was rasping in his lungs, and he felt like he wasn’t getting enough
oxygen, despite the link with his implant letting him know that he had
sufficient O2 in storage.

The tree seemed to
come out of nowhere, and he smacked into it face first, falling back into the
snow, his vision going from blurred to black as consciousness left him.  His
last thoughts were that the snakes would find him, and he would become their
dinner.  And would the poison in his veins kill him whether or not the first
thing happened.

When he woke the
sun was high in the sky, and his implant was telling him it was midday.  A
search of his internal systems showed that, while there was some minor
deterioration, everything was working the way it was supposed to.  And the
nanites would take care of the remaining damage shortly.  He sat up and checked
over his clothing.   He still had his knife, but the bag he had made of the
parts of the backpack he hadn’t used for patching his clothing was gone.  And
with it the last of the food.  He still had his laser firestarter, and his
knife, but the pistol was nowhere to be found.

Not really a
disaster
, he thought of that last.  Without ammo it was really of no use. 
The knife now.  The knife had a monomolecular blade that would cut through just
about anything. A sturdy branch would make it a spear.  Enough of a weapon to
hold off some of the smaller animals haunting the mountains.  Enough to handle
the larger?  Probably not.  Finding a branch that seemed to fit his purpose, he
trimmed and smoothed it with swift motions of the knife, then secured the
handle to one end with the line from his rig’s winch.  At the end he had a
spear just over two meters in length.

There was still
daylight left, so Dang decided to make the best use of it and head out.  His
implant could give him a general direction, he knew which way he needed to go
to get to the lowlands, so that was the course he took.  It seemed no use to
keep looking for the site of the ancients, not in his present condition.  In
fact, there didn’t seem any use to coming back and look for it later. 
It
was probably just a tall tale in the first place,
he thought as he trudged
on.

That night he
found a small cave.  It was inhabited by a small dog like predator, and he made
his first kill with his spear.  A fire at the entrance warmed him, and allowed
him to cook the animal, which, while it tasted awful, was filling.  And the
cave was warm, and as secure as he could make it with the fire built in the
entrance.

The next day
dawned bright with the orange globe of the sun rising over the mountains. The
spear doubled as a walking stick as Dang forged through the deep snow, heading
toward the end of the valley he was in.  Hopefully there would be a pass into
the next valley, stair stepping down until he reached the lowlands and
civilization.

Looking over at
the mountains to the north, he stopped in his tracks. 
It’s the image on the
map
, he thought, staring at the three peaks, running like rising steps from
west to east.  Just like in the drawings. 
This is it.

He shook his
head.  Coincidence?  That was all it was.  There were probably dozens of
vantage points lie this in the damned mountains.  Any of them would present a
display like this.  He looked over the valley, which had to be six kilometers
from side to side, and fifteen kilometers long.  There was forest along both
sides, and a wide, open area with deep snow through the center.  The forest
looked like the better path, since it would not have as deep a snow as the
open.

With that
thought in mind, he started walking toward the north side of the valley, his
eyes darting every which way, looking for trouble.  But trouble stepped out of
the woods from straight ahead, in the form of a large walking death.

Dang stopped in
his tracks, pulling his spear up and gripping it in both hands, knife pointed
toward the predator.  The carnivore stopped as well, its head questing from
side to side for a moment before locking onto the human.  Dang knew it was picking
up his body heat against the cold field of snow.  In a moment it would charge,
and there was no where he could go to escape it.

The creature
stepped forward, then took another, before launching into a run, its wide feet
splaying out and keeping it from going deep into the snow.  Unfortunately, the
human’s feet could not do the same, and Dang stumbled through the snow, his
legs going almost to his knees in the frozen water.

After a dozen
steps he realized he wasn’t going to be able to get away from the creature, so
he turned and readied the spear, aiming it at the belly of the charging
creature.  He saw immediately that the tactic wouldn’t work.  The death would
be biting through his torso before the spear impacted the belly.  So at the
last second he shifted the point upward, pushing it into the lower jaw of the
predator as it started to bite down.

The predator
recoiled, pulling the spear from his hand.  The leg of the raptor struck him
hard in the chest, sending him flying through the air to land on his back in
the snow forty meters away.  Dang forced himself up despite having the breath
knocked from his body.  He had to move, fast, if he wanted to live.

The predator was
roaring in pain, clawing with its foreclaws at the spear haft, trying to get it
out of its jaw.  The monomolecular blade had penetrated straight through the
bone of the jaw, and the beast was having a hard time dislodging it.  With a
last swipe the spear haft broke, leaving the knife in place.  With another roar
and blood in its eyes, the creature looked straight at the man who had wounded
it.  When it did Dang recognized it.  The mate of the one he had killed, and
now it had nothing to stop it from killing him.

Dang turned and
stumbled away, adrenaline lending him strength.   He knew he didn’t have a
chance, but he was unwilling to give up.  There had to be a way out.  He
refused to believe that he was doomed.   He tried speed up, but the snow would
not let him.  He started to pray for something, anything to happen to get him
out of this mess, when he stumbled forward, hit the snow, and fell through.

Next thing Dang
knew he was in the air, clumps of snow falling with him through the darkness. 
Then the darkness vanished into bright light, and he could see a hard floor
below.  It was mostly empty, but there were some strange objects down there
that could have been machines of some type, possibly vehicles.  And the floor
was not coming toward him as fast as he would have expected.  In fact, it felt
like he was falling in slow motion.

As he moved
closer to the floor he could see doors in the walls fronting the open chamber. 
This is it
, he thought as he turned in the air so that his feet were
facing the floor.  Moments later he touched down, still scarcely able to
believe he was still alive.

The things on
the floor were machines, a couple of them vehicles.  He thought of the wealth
that would be his when he made it back to civilization with the location of
this horde of tech.  He yelled at the top of his lungs, jumping in the air and
waving his fists above his head. 
We made it, Dallas
, he thought,
turning around to take in the entire complex.

A grunting sound
raised the hackles on his neck, and he slowly turned again, to see the raptor
standing ten meters behind him.  It had followed him down, protected by the
same arresting field that had allowed him to land without injury.   He just had
time to register the shock when the great head thrust down and the jaws closed
on his body.  A couple of chomps and the creature raised its head, letting the meat
slide down its throat. 

The predator
stood there for a moment, ignoring the pain of the knife that was stuck in its
lower jaw.  It was satisfied.  It had avenged its mate and filled its belly. 
Afterwards it walked around the open area, trying to find a way out, the
wonders of the ancients of no interest to it.  All it wanted was to find a way
back to its own world.

*     *     *

A ship in orbit
picked up the energy signature in the mountains where none had existed before. 
Within an hour search and rescue craft were on the scene, and the ancient base
was found.  There was some confusion about how the large predator they shot
down had gotten into the base, but it seemed to have triggered whatever systems
were there that woke it up the lights and environmental systems.  The other
mystery was the knife that was wedged into the jaw.  The consensus was that the
beast had attacked a human, and the person had injured it before being killed. 
After that all thought was for the technology found at the base, much of it in
perfect operating condition.  Enough to make every member of the two teams
wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

Some worlds have riches of
their own, represented by the plants and animals that dwell there.  Even in an
energy and resource rich society, there are two ways to get ahead if one is not
born to wealth.  One either works hard for it, taking the time and effort, and
the risks, to gain. Or one turns to a life of crime, catering to the baser
natures of human beings.  And on the frontier, these human predators can be
just as dangerous as the kind that evolved on that world.

“Are you stupid,
son?” asked Tobias Kelvin, staring down at the younger man who stood before
him.  The young man was in his late twenties, still a child among a people who
commonly lived to almost three hundred years.  The youth stood his ground, and
Kelvin felt some pride in the lad underneath his rage.

The face that
looked back at him was the same shade of ebony, the same nose, same lips, same
eyes.  He had hoped the boy would make something of himself other than the
hardscrabble existence of a Swamper.  Would go into a technical field, science,
even medicine, like his old man.  Oh, the rest of his family made good money
harvesting the resources of the almost continent spanning swamp that was the
dominant land feature of the Mississippi landmass of the planet Congo.  But it
was not an easy life, or a safe one.

“It seemed like
easy money, Dad,” said Matthew Kelvin, shrugging his shoulders.  “After all,
the damned flower grows all over the place, and I knew how to get it.”

Tobias shook his
head again.  Violet lotus did grow all over the swamp, and in its unprocessed
form was deadly to humans, to eat or even to breath too much of the scent. 
Processed it became a powerful analgesic, and a powerfully addictive drug that
was in much demand on some of the core worlds, where large segments of the
population languished in the boredom of the dole. 
And I thought that
nonsense would be over and done with now that the war has employed most of
those on the rolls
, he thought.

Obviously that
had not happened, and the demand was just as great for the illicit drug that
was made from the flower, even as demand for the medicinal had also increased. 
Only the crime lords were not about to give up the profits they were making on
the drug.

“And how did you
run afoul of the Mob, son?” asked Tobias.  “Why are they after you?”

“I thought
better of giving them the last shipment.”

Tobias shook his
head and spit on the ground.  “So you had an attack of conscience at the last
moment.  Why couldn’t you have had that attack after you gave them what they
wanted, or before you had made the agreement to get them those damned flowers.”

He thought it
would have been so much easier if the violet lotus could be grown off planet. 
But Congo had a unique ecology, and any attempt to grow many of the valuable
plants off planet resulted in failure.  Just like many of the singular
molecules of those plants and animals could not be synthesized in any potency.

“I know I was
stupid,” agreed Matthew.  “And I’m sorry.  But the Mob put out a hit on me, and
I have nowhere else to go.”  The young man looked down at his feet for a
moment, then started to turn away.  “I shouldn’t be putting you and the rest of
the family at risk like this.  I’ll try and see if I can get off planet, where
they won’t be able to find me.”

“Don’t make
another stupid mistake, boy,” said Tobias, stepping forward, grabbing his son
by the arm and turning him around to embrace him.  “The best place for you is
where you were raised.  You are coming home.”

A Giant
carnotropus grunted in the distance, a dominance call that was repeated by
scores more of the large predators across the swamp.  “Let’s see if they can
get past that army.”

*     *     *

“I want this
little fuck, and I want him now,” growled Centari Numbra, the native born crime
boss of Africanus.  A holo globe of the planet rotated beside her, showing her
fiefdom.  The Mississippi continent, named for the enormous river system that
arose from its west most mountains to flow across the landmass, was three
quarters swamp, arising from the flood plains of those waterways.  Fifteen
million square kilometers of land, though over eleven million of that was the
swampland which was about one half water.

There were four
other continents on the world, two larger than the Mississippi landmass, and
none contained a single dominant feature like the swamp.  There were large
tracts of rainforest, and taiga, and some large plains dominated by huge
beasts.  And none were as rich in biological resources as that swamp.  They
were what made this territory so valuable to her, even though less than forty
thousand people lived in that area among the fifteen million inhabitants of the
planet.

Africanus was
the epitome of a frontier world, but some frontier was wilder than others, and
wild was the perfect descriptor for the swamp.  Without the aid of Swampers who
knew the territory, they would get nothing of the riches of that land.

“It looks like
he fled into the Swamp, Boss,” said her Lieutenant in charge of drug
distribution.  “I had my men out looking for him, but he’s nowhere to be found
in any of the cities.  And he hasn’t left the planet.”

“So he’s in the
Swamp.  Go in there and get him.  He’s from there, right.  So he has family
there.  He’s either got to be with them, or they’ll know where he is.  Put some
pressure on them and find out where he is, then kill him.”

The Lieutenant
gave a short bow and turned away to walk out of the room.  Numbra turned her
eyes on her Chief Enforcer, Claude Deveroix, who stood over against one of the
walls.

“Do you have a
strike team to go in after Kelvin if Putin finds him?”

“I have some
people, but I really don’t think they’re right for this job,” answered the
Enforcer.  “I would send them after anyone in the urban areas, and even most of
the wilderness, but not out into that wasteland.”

“What do you
suggest?”

“We could ask
for some help from off planet.”

“And admit that
I can’t control my own territory?  I don’t think so.  Now get your people ready
to go get this boy.  And I don’t care if you have to make an example of anyone
that gets in your way.  I want an example made of him.  No one fucks with me in
my own territory.”

*     *     *

“I think we
should go to the planetary police,” said Fara, looking from her son to her
husband.  “Let them deal with these people.”

Tobias shook his
head.  There were less than a hundred police patrolling the Swamp.  And he
didn’t think they could spare enough people to actually protect his son.  He
would rather depend on himself, and his family and friends, to do that.

“The Mob has
their people within all of the police forces on the planet,” protested
Matthew.   “Not that many, I’m sure.  But enough for any information they
develop to get the Mob as well.”

“You don’t think
that Farrell is connected to the Mob, do you?” asked Fara, her eyes wide.

“Oh, I doubt
Officer Farrell is on the take,” said Tobias, shaking his head.  Edgewater the
village only had a little over a hundred people, and it really wouldn’t have
made much sense to pay the local cop to keep tabs on that small a population. 
“But he still has to report to someone up the chain of command, and someone
along the way might sell Matthew out.”

Tobias stood and
walked over to the window that looked out on the solid ground of the community
park.  There were some people out there, under the protection of the sonic
field that repelled all native life forms, especially the insectoids that could
be such a nuisance through most of the year.   He looked at those people
closely.  He knew all of them, just as he knew everyone in the service area of
Edgewater.  He not only ran his medical practice in the town, but most of his
patients lived out there in the Swamp.  They were good people, the kind who would
be loyal to their friends and neighbors, and loyalty meant everything to them.

Beyond the park,
in the deep water of the stream that ran by the village to join with a river
twelve kilometers further on, the ridged head and eyes of a Giant Carnotropus
protruded from the surface.  Tobias estimated the creature to be in the five
meter range, a baby for that species, but old enough to know that intruding
upon the villages of the humans was a bad idea.  The hexapodal amphibians were
not the smartest of creatures, but they were smart enough to remember the
carcasses of their own that had hung around the village at times.

“Maybe Matthew
should go out to one of his uncles’ houses,” suggested Fara.

“That might be a
good idea, son,” said Tobias, thinking about the five brothers and brothers in
law that lived out in the wilderness, making their living on harvesting the
Swamp.  There were also a dozen cousins out there.  “Maybe Timothy.”

Fara nodded at
that suggestion.  Timothy was her older brother, and a former Army Ranger.  He
had served in the Lasharan wars, tracking insurgents in the wilderness of
several worlds through multiple tours, but was now back home with his family. 
Tobias couldn’t think of a more protected place for his son.

Matthew’s older
brother and sister were both off planet studying, Frederick at the Imperial
University on Jewel, and Mara at the Peale Island Naval Academy.  They wouldn’t
have to worry about those two, but they also weren’t here to help.

“And what about
you two?” asked Matthew, closing his eyes and shaking his head.  “It won’t take
much to find out that you are my parents, and that you live here.  Maybe you
should both go out to Uncle Timothy’s as well.  Or at least out to our cabin.”

“I can’t close
down my practice,” replied Tobias, looking over at his wife.  “There are too
many people depending on me.”

In some ways
that was not really true.  Every colonist had a full spectrum of internal
nanites protecting them against biological and chemical infestations.  All had
full service med kits on hand.  But in an environment like this that still
might not be enough.  And the presence of a trained physician could still be
the difference between surviving and not.   He turned to his wife and took her
hands.

“But I want you
to go, dear.  I would feel much better if you were in a safe place, and you can
still do your job through the com net.”

“But, then you
will be here by yourself,” protested Fara.

“I could ask
some of our nieces and nephews to come for a stay,” said Tobias, calling up
some contacts on his implant.  “I won’t be alone.  Now, let’s make the contacts
we need and get moving.”

“And I’ll have
to stay in hiding for how long?” asked Matthew.  “I can’t hide forever.”

“Just until this
thing blows over, son.  Then we’ll get you off the planet.”  He looked in
Matthew’s eyes, seeing the misery that lived there.  “You brought this on
yourself, and you need to accept the consequences.  I’m just hoping those
consequences don’t include the end of your life.”

*     *     *

“I think I’ve
found him,” said the voice of the snitch over the com.  “I saw him in a village
called Edgewater.”

“So he’s there
in the village?” asked Deveroix, waving for one of his people to get on the com
with them.

“Actually, he
got in a aircar and headed out over the swamp about fifteen minutes ago, with a
man who looked like a close relative.  But his dad’s still here.  He’s the
local physician, while his mom works from home as a government administrator. 
I figure they would have to know where he went.”

“Good work,”
said Deveroix, checking a holo globe of the planet and locating the village,
about two hours flight from the city of St. Martin, the continental capital. 
“Keep an eye on the father.  Don’t let him out of your sight.  I‘ll have a team
there in about three hours to take charge of him, and the mom.  Then we’ll find
out where the little fuck has gotten to.”

Deveroix killed
the com and looked over at his Enforcer.  “What do we have in St. Martin?”

“Three of our
boys, plus some local gang members that sometimes work for us.”

“Get our men on
a transport out there as soon as fucking possible.  And send a search and
destroy team from here to St. Martin.  They’re to wait on word of the location
of the little fuck, then go after him.”

“You don’t think
the three guys we’re sending will be enough?”

“I don’t want to
take any chances.  Centari said she wanted him, now, and I’m not about to get
on her bad side.”

The Enforcer
nodded in understanding, then got up and left the room so he could get the
teams moving.  Deveroix knew the man could have accomplished that task in the
room with him, but most of his people didn’t like someone looking over their
shoulder while they took care of business.

The little
fuck should have stayed in the city, where he would be the only casualty,
thought the Chief Enforcer. 
Now he’s going to get his family killed along
with him.

*     *     *

It was a short
hop by aircar to Uncle Timothy’s house.  Timothy had brought his own car in,
along with a couple of his sons, Jacob and Stephen.  Stephen was flying them
back out, while Jacob, the oldest, stayed in town to keep an eye on his
father.  Timothy had been a Ranger, with all the talents and skills of those
elite troops.  Matthew couldn’t think of a better man to be watching his dad,
though he had some reservations about Jacob, who was only nineteen years old,
not even an adult.  Still, he had grown up in the Swamp, with Uncle Timothy as
his mentor, and that meant he was as self-reliant a young man as there was in
this wilderness.

The Swamp passed
by below.  The tops of trees covered much of it, with open water in places. 
Animals running from the sound of the car that they associated with a dominant
predator.  A large trope, a carnotropus which was at least nine meters in
length and had to mass six tons, looked up at them from a patch of dry land and
croaked a roar.  They went over a boat a mile further, moving down one of the
streams at a good clip on its impeller engine.