Wraiths of Caledonia
Damian Foyle
Copyright 2011 Damian Foyle
Chapter 01
Nights came slow, at a planetary crawling speed on this sad excuse for a planet. The sunset -feeling longer than a single earth-day sometimes, was a mesmerizing moment between the long day and the chilling night that followed. As the planet lazily turned its back to the suns, the light from the binary star system gave the control center a reddish hue like a bad omen to come. The day bled away slowly and the darkness crept over the barren land. Death and cold would rule Caledonia for the next 50 earth-days.
Maybe it was that single moment of peace on such a hostile land that kept me on this assignment, or perhaps it was the struggle, the danger and the knowing that back on Earth people's lives were better because of our hard work. Who was I kidding, right? I'd had my share of battles and skirmishes, mind you, but I was not some doe-eyed hero on a mission, roaming the universe, facing dangers bravely and saving damsels in distress left and right.
I'd like to think that it wasn’t because of some badly made career choices I ended up here, but whatever the reason; I was stuck on a hostile planet 100 light-years away from home. I'd developed a Type II ulcer and apparently a cancerous tissue (caused by the side-products of the mining operation... one in a million chance my ass!) was starting to form in my lungs. Two (three if you counted the heavy drinking) organs gone in 5 years... I'd seen worse to be honest.
“3 minutes, sir.” Lieutenant Connolly interrupted my self-pitying routine. His face had the same reddish hue as the rest of the crew. Dark shadows circled their eyes, making them look like crimson skulls. Even with the filters down, we just couldn’t get rid of it thoroughly.
“Good. Initiate the countdown and start the lock-down sequence.” I ordered.
A high pitched voice rang in my ears.
3 minutes until sunset.
“Lock-down sequence has started, Colonel. Systems respond well. Auxiliary hatches closed... door 1 to 10 closed... door 10 to- sir! I'm picking up a transmission. It's short range.”
Just my luck.
“Dammit! Let's hear it, lieutenant.”
“Base 10, this is Colonel Tanner. Do you copy?”
“This is Colonel Maser. What in god’s name are you doing out there Tanner?”
Tanner was in charge of Base 9, located a few hundred miles south of us. When I landed on Caledonia he had already spent 10 miserable years managing the mining operation. He was hoping for retirement then, but it never came. Another fellow inmate, as Tanner would say, one that knew the place as good as any. It bothered me that he was out there, only 3 minutes before the sunset.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
I did any good friend would have done; acted emotionally and did something stupid. I grabbed a mobile com device and started running.
“Lieutenant, contact the hangar. I want a transport shuttle ready to take off. They've got exactly 30 seconds.” I shouted back. Maybe, I was going to be a hero after all. The problem was heroes tended to die young.
2 minutes 45 seconds until sunset, warned the automated alarm system.
“Thank god.” I heard Tanner saying, his voice barely audible. “I've been trying for hours. There is too much interference at this time of the day. I- we're in deep shit, man. We've been pushing hard but we won't make it in time. We have many inj-”
“What's your position, Colonel?” I interrupted him.
“I'm not sure. South... about 1, maybe 2 miles away.”
“Alright, keep moving. We're on our way.”
I charged into the hangar like a bull. The emergency siren was loud enough to deafen and the crew was running around like their pants were on fire. I found one of the transporters almost ready to take off, the pilot already strapped in. I jumped in through the open upper hatch and we were in air even before I could get to my feet.
“Alright boys,” I said from where I was sitting on the floor. I didn't dare to get up with the shuttle accelerating. “We've got ourselves a rescue mission and we got... 2 minutes and 12 seconds to do it... give or take. Set course for south and try to get a lock on Colonel's signal.”
“Tanner, we won't be able to triangulate your location in time... not the standard way. You'll need to send a pulse through the com.” I said.
The sunset messed with all our communication devices. Something to do with the mineral compositions that made this planet so valuable to Earth, I'd been told. Soon we would be cut from the net of communication satellites orbiting the planet. All the bases would lock-down and spend the “night” underground.
“Give me a moment, John. You know it's gonna drain the batteries, right?”
“Don't worry about that now. Just send it.”
“Colonel Maser, we got it.” The pilot informed. “They're 60 seconds away. We won't make it back to the base in time, sir.”
“We're not leaving them to the damned wraiths, soldier. Tanner, we have your location... ETA 60 seconds.” This mission was getting better by the minute.
His reply came but it was all static. All I could make out was Godspeed, colonel. Seconds passed and we finally got a visual. There were at least 15 people out there, some pushing hard, some failing behind. We set down in the middle of the group. I opened the cargo bay door and smiled.
“Someone ordered pizza?”
You don't get to be the cavalier everyday, you know. You've got to learn to enjoy small things in life. Not surprisingly, all I could get was a couple of tired chuckles.
“Right then, one last push people.”
They were all exhausted, yet determined to survive. It took only half a minute to load them up through the cargo bay door and take off. We left most of their equipment behind. We were already on our way back when Lieutenant Connolly contacted the transporter.
“Colonel, 30 seconds.”
30 seconds! The pilot was right, we wouldn't make it back in time, but I didn't expect trouble until a minute or so after the sunset itself. I gave orders to empty the hangar and seal the inner hatches. We would probably have some unwanted visitors following us. A loose wraith inside the base was the last thing I wanted. Losing a hangar was better than losing the whole base. I may not be a genius but I could put two and two together in most cases.
I paced inside the shuttle, checking on the injured people. Mostly, they were just too tired from walking miles after miles. Tanner just gave me a nod. He was busy with something but I didn't pay much attention to that. The light was getting even dimmer; last few seconds before it became pitch black outside.
The lieutenant warned me that there was already temperature drops registered in outer perimeters, only a mile to the south. Close to the place we picked up Tanner and his crew, I thought. Wraiths were behind us. And they would be gaining fast once they caught our trail.
“Colonel- significant temper- drops in sensors 1-. They're - path, sir.” Static was getting worse. I had no idea which sensors those were but with my luck, the last part of that message would be; they're on your path, sir.
“Start the heaters in those sensors.” I replied. Every sensor circling the base had been installed with heaters exactly for this kind of situations. I hoped they would find them tastier than our fuel cells, but there was no way to know until it was too late.
“Lieutenant, get ready to open the hangar hatch... now!” I said, hoping that our transmission would get to the command center. We were approaching the face of the mountain dangerously fast. The engine coughed and stammered as the fuel cells depleted. Apparently, it wasn't a good day for having wishes. The shuttle kept losing altitude and speed. It seemed like we were going to have an untimely meeting with the mountain itself, rather than the hangar with its hatch opening
too slowly for my taste.
People crowding inside the transporter seemed ignorant of the coming danger. They were just too exhausted to care anymore. I had felt that way before. There was a certain peculiarity about the danger you faced just when you thought you were through. It drained all your power to fight and left you in an emotional coma. I closed my eyes and did something I hadn't done for a long while. I prayed.
The shuttle dived into the open gap, leaving most of its landing gear on the bottom of the hatch. The initial contact left the transporter skidding on its nose. Everyone was strapped in, but the crash was hard enough to loosen some kind of cargo box. It flied past just a few feet away from my face, landing without injuring anybody as the tail was raised high.
For a moment, I was sure the shuttle would tip over. Eventually it balanced itself and came to a sudden halt in the middle of the hangar. The hatch slowly closed behind us.
Others were already out of their seats and busy helping the injured people. I unfastened myself and went to where Tanner was seated. I helped him up and we walked to the cargo bay door. Tanner objected weakly. Stop, he managed to say and suddenly, I knew the reason. The temperature inside the vehicle had dropped at least 20 degrees during the last minute. My breath was slightly frosting. A shiver went through my body.
“Wraiths.” Tanner simply said.
While barely conscious and exhausted, Tanner had realized there was something wrong. Yet I, the mighty rescuer, almost got all of us killed by opening the cargo bay doors. I felt truly stupid.
“Lieutenant, situation report.” I demanded.
“Sir, we don't have any breach in the hangar but it looks like we got visitors.”
“How many?”
“One, most likely, but there is no way to be sure, Colonel. There aren't any high tech sensors in the hangar.”
“Understood. I want the infirmary ready to treat hypothermia and check the cameras inside the hangar.”
I found Tanner bent over a silver case, trying to open it. “Come here.” he said. The case had CMC written on it. I had seen those cases more than enough times in my 5-year duty in Caledonia. They contained highly sensitive mining charges; the kind that exploded before you could say “Oh shit!” We were lucky they didn't explode while we crashed into the hangar.
“Dammit, Tanner. What the hell were you thinking?”
“They're not mining charges.” He said as he sat down next to case and opened it. “... at least, not exactly.”
The charges inside the case and a component I didn't recognized were jury-rigged together into a nasty piece of explosive device. There was a timer attached to the upper lid. My heart went into overdrive just by looking at the thing.
“Do you remember that loud mouth xenobiolog in my base? Surprisingly, this is his design. Unfortunately he blew himself up in the process, but for all his faults he was a meticulous scientist. He left behind instructions on how to build this baby and some other stuff. Evidently, the design was faulty. I managed to correct the parts regarding the explosive parts.”
“Will you tell me what this is before we die of old age?” I interrupted.
“It's sort of a sonic bomb. The xenobiolog found out that the wraiths are susceptible to certain kind of sonic waves, and this baby here is our ticket out of here John.”
“There is enough explosive in there to bring half of the hangar on our head.”
“Don't worry about that. I modified the charges. Their yields are only a fraction of what they used to be.”
“How does it work then?” I said. My body temperature was dropping fast. I rubbed my hands together to warm them.
“You press here... boom it goes. Hopefully, away from us.”
I couldn't help but smiling at that. There was a plan forming in my head. It was a slight chance, but it could work. “Right then, I'll be right back.”
“How much juice left in the fuel cells?” I asked the pilot. The reply wasn't something I hoped for. Almost depleted... what a day, huh?
“Okay. Those cells heat up during the use right? I remember the chief engineer complaining about the fuel cell cooling system in the transporters.” The pilot only nodded.
“Is it possible to eject them?”
“You can't eject only the cells, sir... but there is an emergency system for propelling the whole system away. These Nikov class transporters used to overload a lot. The emergency system isn't needed anymore... but it's still there.”
“That will have to do.” I said. I opened a com to the Command Center and told the lieutenant to get ready to open the inner hatch 4 on my command.
“Understood, sir.” His nervous reply came.
I went down to the tail section of the transporter where Tanner was calmly sitting by the case full of explosives.
“Do you think that will work?” I gestured towards the case. He just shrugged.
“Who knows? If it works we'll be affected too. The hull might help to some degree and the only other useful thing that comes to my mind is a silly one.” He said as he made an ear plug out of a piece of ripped cloth and some sort of wax God knows where he found. Tanner ladies and gentlemen; always resourceful! He looked up at me and gave a crooked smile.
“You never know. I've seen you pull off sillier things. Can you help the others with that? We need to leave very soon.” I said, feeling the cold in my bones and went back to talk to the pilot.
“I want you to overload the fuel cells. Do whatever you can to make cells overheat, then eject them and follow us out. Give me a signal when you're ready to start.” He started fumbling with the controls. I watched him work for a while. Then I turned my back to the cockpit and faced the passengers. They were already ripping apart pieces of clothes and sticking them up in their ears. This would look great on my report.
“Listen up, folks!” I finally shouted so they could hear me easily. “As you might have noticed, we have a small problem. I know you're all tired. Some of you are injured, and I've already said this before but... one last push, people. We're almost there. I want you all to divide into groups. Each one is responsible for an injured person. We're not leaving anyone behind. Understood? Good.”
“I see that you're already acquainted with Tanner's ingenious inventions.” I continued. “The reason you have a piece of clothing stuck in your ears is because we're going to explode a sonic bomb in the hangar to knock out that wraith outside. The catch is the bomb will also affect us. I'm hoping the hull will protect us from worst of the explosion, but there is no way to be sure. You'll probably feel dizzy and disoriented after the explosion.... get back to your feet as fast as possible and follow me. Crawl if you have to, but keep moving. That's it. Good luck to you all.” I finished my rather long speech. Nobody said anything or asked any questions. There was no protests, no Are you insane? comments. They were just drained. I hope they would be strong enough to follow me out and I sure as hell hoped I wouldn't end up crawled on the floor puking my guts out after that long speech.
“Ready, sir.” I heard the pilot shouting back then. I told him to start and went back to the tail section. Tanner had opened the case and was working on it.
“I can set it to 15 seconds.” he said.
“It should be enough.” Suddenly all the equipments inside the craft came alive. The engine stammered as it tried to start. The heaters blew harder and gave us some comfort from the cold we were feeling.
“Show time.” I smiled and grabbed the case. I closed it and went to the door, with Tanner following behind with weak steps.
“I'll handle the door, just throw it as far as possible.” he said.
At that moment an unmistakable mechanical sound came as the fuel cell system parted away and it was ejected into the air. It crashed to the hangar floor with a loud bang. The transporter went pitch black for a second. Then emergency light came on and filled the craft with red light.
Tanner waited a second or two before he pushed the button. “Here we go.” I said and pressed the butt
on attached on the case handle. Precious seconds started ticking away. I gathered my strength, slightly turned my body like Olympic thrower and sent it flying through the widening gap. My aim wasn't perfect. It hit the upper part of the door but it cleared the lowering half of the cargo bay door. Tanner stopped the door in the middle immediately and raised it back up, closing it fully before the explosion. A faint tunk-tunk-tunk sound came and the pain followed.
It didn't start as a discomfort and build up. It was a full on attack on all my senses. It felt like I was hit by a mental bus. I had heard about vibration or high noise causing discomfort and sometimes pain, but I never thought it could reach such intensity. It would be less painful if someone just plunged an ice pick into my brain and wiggled it around. I was on my knees, fighting the urge to puke my guts out.
“Come on!” I heard someone say.
“It's okay. I think, I'll just crawl.” I found myself saying.
Whoever it was helping me up laughed weakly. “God! This is worse than the last migraine attack I had, and that had made me cry like a little girl, I tell you!” someone else said disturbingly close to my ears. I found myself standing between Tanner and the shuttle pilot. Tanner's pants had a dark patch running down from his crotch to his feet. There was a familiar scent stinging my nose. My hands felt wet.
He saw the look on my face, but just shrugged. “You know, there must be a rule somewhere about not pissing on the guy who just rescued you.” I said weakly.
“You did that part all by yourself, Johnny boy.” he said with a smile.
I realized I had a similar wet patch between my legs. “That's just so like that damn xenobiolog, designing a bomb that makes you soil yourself. I hope he pissed himself to death.” I said. My legs didn't feel wobbly anymore. The strength was returning. I checked my watch, thinking we had lost at least minutes after the bomb. It was only 43 seconds.
I went to the bay door and lowered it. Nobody needed a “Let's go!” shout. Nothing came out of the dark to attack us but the moment I stepped out of the shuttle I felt a chill surrounding my body. It almost made my knees buckle again. The mere existence of the wraith was enough to drain the life and energy from anything in the vicinity.
Ever had a friend who seemed to have the uncanny ability to kill the mood of any party he went to or just talking to him for 5 minutes made you feel depressed? Wraiths were like that, only on a larger scale. It was in their nature. With the coming of the night cycle, they rushed out of their pits like swarms of locusts and caused an unnatural winter wherever they went. Feeding wasn’t simply an act for them, it was their existence, and they fed on all sorts of energy sources.
Luckily for us, during the day cycle the wraiths went into hibernation. It had something to do with the binary star system, according to the geniuses back on Earth. (What sort of twisted version of evolution could produce such a creature conflicting with its own nature, I'd always wondered.) And they usually avoided Caledonium-rich mountain ranges, which only meant, this puppy here was very, very hungry and that made me extremely nervous.
I looked for the fuel cell unit while we walked to the hatch and found it about 30 feet away from us. I was expecting to see a ghastly figure bent over the equipment, making slurping sounds, a monster right out of an ancient horror movie, but as far as I could see, there was nothing. That made me even more anxious to get the hell out of there.
Our group reached the hatch seemingly without any problems. It opened even before I could contact the command center. We all jammed inside waited patiently until the hatch behind us closed and another one in front of us opened.
“Sensors don't show any temperature drops in your section, Colonel.” I heard lieutenant's voice through the internal com system.
“Welcome home, sir. That was helluva rescue mission.”