Eric Olafson, Midshipman 70

Part 70: QUAGMIRE BOG

We had launched the emergency beacon with a pre recorded message two days ago. To make sure my friends would not lose hope I kept them busy, collecting specimen. We had the robots built us a basic freight flier. With it we surveyed a greater area around the base. We had the P4 mounted on the flyer just in case.

Har-Hi was piloting the craft and Mao manned the Paralysator. Elfi was sitting in one of the passenger seats, her eyes closed trying to use her limited Psionics to scan for more of the Snake beings. So far she could feel nothing.

Krabbel spotted it first and pointed it out to us.

There about 25 kilometers away from our base we found the almost completely overgrown wreck of an old Saran planet lander.

I knew I wasn’t acting very environmental friendly when I had Mao hose down the area around the wreck with Paralysator rays, just to be on the safe side.

The main hatch was open and vegetation had made it inside the hull of the sixty meter craft. The hull appeared undamaged as far as I could tell at first glance. The ships landing gear had sunken into the soft ground and it was sitting in a steep angle surrounded by shallow water and vegetation. The power of the Paralysator was evident in all the animals either paralyzed or dead around the old Saran ship.

Mao kept watch with the P4 while Har-Hi, Krabbel and I approached the ship.

I said. “If we don’t make contact soon, I think we found our way off this planet. We got robots and a very talented engineer.”

My Dai friend pointed his blaster inside the dark opening of the access hatch. “Let’s hope we don’t have fight Nul in that thing.”

Krabbel scurried up the hull of the craft and said. “I think the Nul would be in for a surprise. I mean they never dealt with an angry Neo Viking and his crazy crew.”

“They did get a taste of it though when we faced those Nul fighters.” Har-Hi said and then turned. “Can’t see anything moving or dangerous inside, but I am not sure if the Paralysator penetrates all the armor of that thing so we better be careful.”

The room behind was full of vegetation and we found partial skeletons of two Saresii, the rest most likely carried away by animals.

My scanner showed a weak energy signature coming from the small crafts engineering section.

We completed the survey of the craft without any incidents. Not much of the vegetation had made it past the air tight doors of the air lock that led to the rest of the ship. We did find three more members of the Saran crew, all three mummified skeletons and all three had been murdered.

The engines were undamaged, not so the engineering section. Someone had smashed and burned most of the controls. There was a little energy left in the emergency batteries, but not enough to even operate the ships computronic.

We closed the hatch and returned to the camp. I was thinking about ways to get the ship back to the camp and repair it.

Almost two weeks had passed now since we had arrived on Quagmire Bog and we could neither reach the probe we had launched nor did anyone try to contact us.

During our daily meeting I said. “It seems no one heard our beacon signal. So we complete the base construction and add the facilities to strip that Saran Planet Lander and make it a working ship. We will also keep surveying this world. We still need to find out if there are more of those snakes.”

We started a concentric search pattern and launched two more mapping satellites. So far we did not find any signs of the Snake beings, but the Satellite images revealed several completely overgrown ruin sites, consistent with the temple we had found.

The day ended without anything happening. The construction of the base was making steady progress and the robots had finished with the foundation and had poured a solid floor inside the walled circle on which they now erected the main building of the new base. They were almost done with the first storey. The machines had to walk further now, to gather materials for the Nanite factory and doing so created a nice and wide open area, nothing could approach us without being seen.

I was confident in our security arrangements and did not think the snakes could do us any harm without us seeing them first. In a relaxed mood and near the midnight hour I climbed up to our roof post to relieve Hans from his watch.

I saw his hulking shadow in the darkness behind the P4 Paralysator and said. “Anything moving out there?”

Hans did not answer, but he moved and turned towards me. My eyes had adapted to the darkness and I noticed his bald head almost too late. At first I was not thinking anything about it, but then I realized he did not wear the pink wig that was shielding him from the Psionic suggestions of the Snake beings.

Hans howled words in his native language and swiveled the P4 around. In the faint light of a few stars I now saw one of the Snakes not far from him behind on the roof.

There was no way I could evade the invisible cone shaped ray of the weapon, or reach Hans in time to somehow prevent him from firing. Only because he was fighting the influence and did not react as fast as he normally could I was still there, at this distance the P4 would be deadly if it was set to maximum output.

Hans growled and I understood him now. “It’s time to die Verfluchter Wikinger!”

Acting on instinct I threw the knife I always carried under the uniform blouse on my back; when it came to react fast and without much thinking my reflexes went for knifes and blades before I thought using my guns. The knife flew true, I had not aimed at Hans, the blade would not do much to him. The blade struck the snake being in the throat right underneath its pointed maw.

At the same time I felt as if I was doused with boiling water, Hans had fired the Paralysator.

I didn’t lose consciousness, but I couldn’t feel anything to the right side of my body. Hans must have swung the projection cone out of the way in the very last moment and only grazed me. Still the effect was painful and my right leg no longer carried the weight of my body and I fell.

Hans held his hands to the sides of his head and kept screaming.

From my awkward position I saw Wetmouth coming on the roof. Hans grabbed the TKU that was leaning against the power unit of the Paralysator with the intent to shoot the Sojonit.

Wetmouth would stand no chance against that powerful weapon, and I was there seeing it all, and unable to do anything about it, the only weapon I had that could stop Hans was my blaster, and it was holstered to my right side. I did manage to pull it with my left hand, but I knew I would be to slow to prevent the Saturnian giant to fire.

Wetmouth was unarmed, so it appeared. Hans was an expert with all weapons and even if he missed at this distance, the intense heat of the blast would kill us both.

Something bright flashed from the eyes of Wetmouth’s mask and the seemingly unstoppable giant, dropped to his knees and stopped moving and screaming. It was as if he was a robot and suddenly lost all power.

Krabbel came on the roof right behind her, carrying four of the powerful TKU’s simultaneous and he fired blast after blast into the dark sky. The thundering, sun bright barrage illuminated a swarm of flying snakes. Each shot vaporized dozens of them.

I realized my tongue and my throat were paralyzed as well, and I could not swallow. Salvia had collected in my mouth and I wanted to get rid of it. I was gagging without the ability to cough, to move my head or do much of anything. I was suffocating, black circles hovered around my eyes as the lack of oxygen, the worst thing was the pain of not being able to cough.

I had experienced pain before in many forms, but being this helpless, to be fully conscious while my lungs tried to expand but unable to do so, hurt more than anything I could remember.

My friends were fighting the flying snakes, and I was lying there almost gone. I always thought I would die in a fight and now I would drown in my own spittle. If there was a Valhalla, how would I explain to all the other warriors how I had died?

Wetmouth rushed to my side and I saw her masked face hovering over me. To my surprise she produced a small knife and rammed it into my throat. She too was under the influence of the snakes despite her wig and it was her who killed me, these were the last thoughts I had before everything went dark.

I wasn’t dead after all. I came around lying in one of the beds of the outpost and could feel no pain or other ill effects. My right hand, my eyes and in the sweetest revelation my tongue worked fine.

Wetmouth was sitting right next to me, putting things and instruments back into the box of a field surgery kit.

She turned her head and her voice vibrated with emotions. “That was close, Eric. Very close, you almost died.”

I touched my throat where she had stabbed me and felt a bandage. “Tell me about it, I was halfway to Valhalla when you stabbed me.”

My voice sounded like a malfunction robot and every word was hurting.

“I didn’t stab you, Eric. I performed an emergency tracheotomy. I had to make an incision through your neck into the trachea so you could breathe because your upper airways were blocked.”

She then went on explaining what the trachea was and the significance of her procedure. Explaining things was her way of calming her nerves, I knew and I let her finish. I sat up and said with my rasping and hissing sounding voice. “What is our situation? How are the others?”

She leaned forward and gave me a tight hug. I could smell her wonderful perfume and heard her breath reflecting against the inside of her mask. She did not say a word, and kept hugging me for a long moment. “You should not talk that much. Let your wounds heal. We only have emergency medical equipment and I am not a MD.”

She did not let go as she continued. “Hans will be okay as well, no one else got hurt. Krabbel and Har Hi are on the roof sweeping the jungle edge and the skies with the Paralysator. It appears that there is a smaller flying variety of these Snake beings and they attacked in the dark, one of them managed to sweep the wig of Hans. They are more intelligent than we thought and it seems they have figured out, it is the wigs that protect us.”

I got up. “How is Hans and how did you stop him?”

My mask is more than a disguise, it has sophisticated weaponry incorporated. There is a needler in its nose, microscopic needles dipped in a very potent Shaill nerve toxin.”

I saw as she lowered her lashes behind the eye slits and added. “The toxin is deadly, but I hoped Hans is big enough to...” She stopped and then said.” I had no choice, Eric.”

“Hans is dead?”

“Oh no, he will be fine. I was able to administer the antidote in time. He will be back to normal in a few hours, but...”

I put both hands on her shoulders. “As you said, you had no choice. I hesitated too long and instead of firing at him, I threw a knife at the snake. You did what had to be done; besides it all worked out and we can add this to our collective experience.”

She just nodded, but I could feel her soft shoulders shiver underneath my hands.

I touched the tip of the mask’s nose. “I bet Hans pride is hurt more than anything else, brought down by something like that! You Sojonites sure are a devious bunch, I’d say.”

“One could say that.”

Har Hi had organized the defenses while Wetmouth was patching me up. Hans was sitting with a forlorn expression on his face in the common room and as he saw me coming in, he turned his gaze to the ground kneading his big hands.

I sat next to him and said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I am sure ten thousand men as strong as you fell for one of those Sojonit weapons. She only did it to safe herself.”

He looked up.”Oh I am not mad about that. Wetty did what she had to do and I am glad she did.”

“Then what is bugging you? I don’t know when exactly but I promise you we get of this planet eventually.”

“Eric I am not worried about that either, but I almost killed you. Har Hi seems to be a better friend to you than I am; he managed to aim to the side. I did not, I hit you. I always considered you my best friend, but it looks, like inside I am not strong enough.”

I put my hand on his truly immense underarm. “It was Psionics and not you, I hate these invisible powers. Hans do you trust me?”

“With my life you know that Eric.”

“Do you believe what I say?”

“I have never doubted a word you said.”

“Hans, I know you are my friend. I trust you with my life. I have no doubt you are a good friend as Har Hi. Besides I think you managed to pull that darn Paralysator away too. I was only partially affected, if I would have been caught inside that ray at that distance, we would not have this conversation.”

His eyes lit up. “You know maybe that is true. You should be dead.”

“Well I am glad I am not. So get up and let us get out there and assess the situation.”

The next day, one of our satellites identified an energy source almost five thousand miles from our camp site. It was located in a mountainous area, almost on the other side of this world and on a different continent, with less vegetation than everywhere else.

The energy signature did not match any known configuration, but then without having access to GalNet we could not compare it to more than what Wetty had stored on her PDD.

We fitted a robot with telemetric equipment and send the machine in remote control mode to investigate.

As the robot closed in on the source, the machine was attacked by a large number of the Snake beings. The beings relied on simple clubs and their Psionic powers; neither form of attack was effective against the heavy construction robot. The snakes retreated into a cave and pelted the robot with rocks and boulders.

The robot was unarmed but we used its strong arms to throw rocks back. With machine precision and great speed the robot unleashed a deadly hailstorm of rocks, killing several snakes right away and making the rest retreat further into the cave.

In order to get to the ground of this mystery I decided to assault the cave ourselves and attacked it from the air soaking the area with Paralysator rays.

There was no movement at all, but Har Hi was not sure how deep the Paralysator rays would penetrate the rock, for all we knew there could be millions of those snakes hiding in subsurface caves.

Har-Hi said. “I think we should simply go in there with TKU’s blazing and roast anything that moves.”

“I don’t think that would be wise,” objected Hans holding the P4.” We don’t have battle armor and those TKU’s produce an awful amount of heat, in a confined space like a cave, the superheated air could hurt us too! There is a reason why these TKU’s are no longer issued, they were too powerful and did cause casualties among our own troops.”

I said. “Lt. Aurellius at Camp idyllic had us study the cave wars of Winston Planet and I think I know what we can do. We suck all the air out and make them suffocate. All we need is a strong explosion inside the cave entrance. We got lots of explosives and detonators too.”

Wetmouth said.” Do you think we should do that? This is still a potential first contact situation, you know.”

“After what they have done to that planets population, the survey teams and what they have done last night, heck yes. First Contact was initiated by them and with hostile nature. Besides we need to be able to work in safety. Whatever is left after I am done can ask for surrender.”

Three hours later one of our robots carried a 1000 kilo charge into the mouth of the cave and as soon as the machine was clear, I send the detonation signal.

The explosion was tremendous, fire and smoke belched out of several previously hidden holes and openings all around the area.

Hans let out a silent whistle. “I am sure they got the message. Don’t mess with Eric.”

I looked at him. “Who knows exactly how much longer we are to be here on this world. I personally prefer not to look over my shoulder every five minutes and hope nothing messes with my brain.”

“No argument from me. I just liked the big explosion and wish we had another one to set off.”

“Let us check out what damage the first one did, if anything is still alive we can always do it again.”

We assaulted the main cave entrance with heavy Paralysator fire and with our TKU’s dialed down to a minimum at the ready.

The thermo-kinetic explosion had blackened the walls and incinerated anything flammable and turned it to ashes.

Har Hi pointed at a section of cave wall and said. “I guess there was one of them.” He made us aware of a shadowy outline of a Snake being burned into the rock wall.

We moved very slowly, expecting an attack at any time. Hans carried the Paralysator like a big bazooka on his shoulders was ready to activate the weapon at the slightest sign.

Elfi who walked right behind me had her eyes half closed insisted that she could not sense anything.

The heat damage of the fire cloud rushing through this chambers became less the further we penetrated into the cave. Now we floor was littered with the bodies of charred snake beings, both the big and the smaller winged kind.

Finally we reached a larger chamber. Alien machinery lined the walls, transparent cylinders, hoses, pipes, glass tanks with greenish liquids and banks of control machinery. Some of it had been destroyed and smashed by the explosion.

Wetmouth examined the consoles and said. “This is a DNA matrix hatchery. The purpose of this equipment is easily revealed by its layout, but I cannot identify the civilization that made it.”

Har Hi scratched his chin. “You call this tumbled nightmare of goo and techno-bits straight forward. I would not want to see what you call a mess then.”

I knew she was smiling under her mask, like a Viking boy who found his way into the armory.

“The principle behind the science of Xeno technology is to realize that a machine designed to heat water, may looks very impressive or really alien but it still functions by the same principles and does the same thing then a machine you know.”

She made a gesture around the cave. “This appears to be very old equipment and most of it is non functional for many millennia. I am sure this is where the Snakes multiplied but it does not appear they had the technological know-how to maintain and keep all this running.”

Hans looked over the many bodies lying around between some of the smashed machinery. “I think we should pull the plug on whatever is still working. This place gives me the creeps. Let us blow it up.”

I decided not to destroy it. Cirruit and Wetmouth did however disconnect the alien power source from all the equipment. We did not see any more of the snakes over the next days, but I was convinced there might be more out there.

They had an entire planet and centuries to hide and we were only nine individuals with limited resources, however if there were survivors to the explosion I hoped they carried the message around, not to mess with us.

The fourth week of our stay on Quagmire was almost over, at 13:00 hours today and 28 days ago, we had arrived.

Since then we had repaired the GalNet terminal, manufactured a second unit and launched two probes with pre recorded messages in case we were jammed. The possibility that there was a war going on seemed more and more likely and since we did not hear anything, things might not go as well for the Union as we hoped. Maybe the Nul were a more serious adversary than anyone thought they would be. Perhaps the Kermac saw their opportunity and joined the ferocious annelid life forms of the Nul Empire.

The floating make shift base we had found on our arrival was gone; its materials had been recycled and incorporated into the new planetary base that grew in its place. Of course it was far from done, and the robots kept on working day and night. They had to roam much further and use large all terrain wheelbarrows to gather the necessary raw materials.

We had moved into the second tier of the base complex, twenty meters above the ground with a good view all around. We all had spacious new quarters now and there was a regular conference room, laboratories and plenty of empty not yet completed or furnished rooms and halls. Cirruit devised a life form sensor combined with a radar system that kept watch and would warn us from any air born attack and he was working on a shield generator to put the whole base under a force field if necessary. The Nanite factory was a marvelous machine but it was limited in what it could create, Multi Dim Shields and modern weaponry were among the things it could not create. To obtain metals and certain minerals, the robots could not rely on dirt and plant material for raw material alone but needed to start mining and that slowed down the entire process.

We all knew of the weekly anniversary coming up, we all had our daily meeting right after breakfast. It was there we discussed our daily tasks and the progress of our plans.

Elfi glanced over to the GalNet terminal. “I think it is fair to say no one has heard us.” She didn’t sound depressed but I could sense she saw herself stuck on this planet.

I said. “We going to complete the base, and then we have the facilities to strip that Saran Planet Lander and make it a working ship. We got robots and a Nanite factory and a hell of a crew. We are far from out of options. Today we start cutting a way to the Saran Ship and then we devise a way to drag it here”. I smiled at her. “We do have some work cut out for us however.”

She simply hugged me. “How could we be lost with the best friends a girl could ask for?”

We then started to make plans how to move the Saran Ship and what needed to be done to get it space worthy.

Cutting a 25 kilometer long road into the jungle, wide enough to drag the 800 ton Saran ship back to the base was, even with the robots, back breaking work.

We found out that the jungles of Quagmire had many other nasty inhabitants, besides the Psionic Snakes. All kinds of biting and stinging insects, small and very poisonous snakes, a beetle spitting acid that was strong enough to eat holes in the tough fabric of our uniforms and of course strong enough to burn and blister the skin. Twenty robots and a Nanite factory were simply not enough. Sadly it was beyond the Nanite factories capability to reproduce or to make more robots; this is why we worked alongside the robots.

For the Nanite factory to produce metals and high grade materials it needed metals and minerals and could not rely on mud, animal and plant material alone. The gathering robots started several mines to gather the needed raw materials in more concentrated amounts but it took longer to get a finished product.

Our plan was to dig the ship out attach newly manufactured Arti grav lifters to its side and neutralize much of its weight, then drag it back to the base. Getting the ship repaired and space worthy was another story.

But eventually the old Saran lander was sitting on the duro crete landing platform of the brand new planetary base.

After Circuit took a closer look at the old ship and he had delivered his technical report combined with his assessment of the Nanite factories limitations we were certain we would be able to repair the ship. But at best it would take us more than a year to complete. Building something from scratch that could go faster than light would have taken much longer.

Most of us had already written off the idea anyone would come and were sure there was a war going on that prevented an early rescue.

Mao speculated that Clusen had deleted any traces of our whereabouts and the war troubles had anyone completely forget about us.

Har Hi was angry that he was missing a chance to fight and was certain the war would be over by the time we got off this world, but they all were in good spirits. We did have a plan and a way off this world and everyone agreed a year would pass soon enough.

There was plenty for everyone to do and I made sure we all had a busy schedule.

Six weeks had passed now and things became routine. The base construction progress had slowed down to a crawl as only two robots continued that task, the rest gathered raw materials for Cirruit and the Nanite factory churning out replacement parts for the old ship. It was slow going as he had to give the machine exact instructions for every part, since none of the things he needed were pre loaded in the factories memory.

It was late afternoon and I was sitting in the base command office and added notes to my daily report log as I did every day. Earlier this morning Wetty and Mao had discovered a treasure chamber underneath the temple ruins, they kept excavating. The shallow rock chamber was filled with golden trinkets and jewelry, speaking of the high level of craftsmanship of the vanished original inhabitants of this world.

I was about to finish and wanted to relief Hans on the watch post when the GalNet terminal beeped and since it was on Auto-receive it came on right away. “USS Devastator calling Olafson’s Gang. Are you able to answer?”

I believe I made the distance from my chair to the terminal in one jump and said.”Planetary Base Quagmire 1, Midshipman Olafson here, and yes we are able to answer. I am switching to Visuals.”

Captain Harris became visible and I saw Stahl standing behind him. It was the Captain himself and not a Communications Officer and he said “Can you give me a short situation report? Where are you exactly? Any casualties?”

“No casualties Captain, Sir. We are on Planet Quagmire Bog as per our orders and I think we have completed our mission. Contact to previous team as ordered was impossible due to the fact they are dead. We identified and most likely neutralized the danger that caused the death of previous survey teams. Base construction as per orders is progressing and we are at 67 percent completion of phase One of the Base construction program. We are attempting to repair an old Saresii Ship Wreck, but we could postpone that if you have different orders or maybe give us a lift from this planet. We are ready to return if that is okay with you.”

There was a moment of silence and I feared we lost them again. Then Stahl almost pushed Harris aside.” We are sending a transport right now, Midshipman. Do you need medical assistance?”

“No Sir. I repeat no casualties here.”

He looked relieved and said. “We are almost 500 light years from your location, so it will take the shuttle a little to get there, but we will keep in contact and try to hurry.”

Part 71 »