A Planet For Emily

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Suzanne was lying on her thin mattress, dreaming of being back on The Maxwell when they came for her. She heard the buzz of the electric lock on her cage door and when she opened her eyes two gigantic Oids were looking down at her. They laid grey, hairy hands on each arm and heaved her upright without effort. Suzanne thought it was like being grabbed by spiders with hands. They took her out into the corridor with one Oid kicking the door shut behind her. A part of Suzanne’s mind noted that the door locked automatically.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

The Oid on the left put his hand over his mouth to signify silence. They took her through a sliding door and what seemed to be a private room – there was a mattress and pictures on the walls – and into another, bare corridor. After a minute or so they put her down so she could walk but kept their hands on her arms as they moved through a maze of intersecting corridors. Suzanne tried to remember the way but there were no distinguishing features, or any signs that she could see. Every now and then an Oid passed them, on some other errand, and stared intently at Suzanne in a way she did not like at all, until they passed.

“Nice place you have here,” said Suzanne, for something to say. “Walls are bare.” Again, the only response was for one Oid to put his hand over his mouth.

After several turns they crammed into a lift which took them up, perhaps three floors, as far as Suzanne could guess from the symbols flashed on a small screen in it. She was then taken into a room with gold inlay carpet and couches with plush upholstery but had only a moment to appreciate the décor before being flung, face down onto the carpet.

“Yeouch!”

“Stay down,” said a voice near her, as she started to get up. Suzanne looked around and realised that there was a translator unit close to her, by a couch. “Do not look up at His Magnificence. You are a worm and should act like it.”

Suzanne thought briefly of flinging the translator unit at His Magnificence, who or whatever he might be, but then thought she might have more of a chance of finding out what was going on by playing the role assigned.

A door opened to her right and something padded into the room. Two giant slippers came into the cruise director’s field of view.

Slippers? thought Suzanne. I’m going to die a horrible, lingering death and this guy wears slippers? Then she heard the creature speak and the hairs on the back of her head stood up. It was the Oompahing of the Oids that Rods had heard - Suzanne had never heard any of the creatures speak - but with a high, cold intonation threaded with a sigh that made her think of ghosts and horror movies.

“Oomph! Oomph! Oomph! This is the vessel.”

Vessel? Suzanne did not like the sound of that at all.

“Oomph, oomph, oomph. Creature on the floor, the men who sold you said you had no friends.”

“Oh no, your honour, I don’t know why they said that,” said Suzanne, without looking up. “I have lots of friends – powerful, important friends.”

“Oomph, oomph, oomph ... two creatures are on the base looking for you. A man, big for a human, and a shorter creature that is mechanical.”

Physically Suzanne remained on the carpet, but mentally she did high fives. “Rods has come for me,” she thought, “he isn’t still angry with me, or maybe he just hadn’t finished yelling at me.” Well, she could live with that. She would smile sweetly or be grumpy right back, as he seemed to prefer that, and she would be where she wanted to be, with Rods on The Maxwell.

“Who are these two creatures to cause trouble on the base? Why do they want you back? This man can find other females?”

“It does not work like that your excellence. Men and women form attachments,” Suzanne wondered briefly what Rods would make of that, “and the man won’t leave without the woman.”

The chief Oid – Suzanne supposed he was in charge – harrumphed, a sound which did not merit a translation. “This friend of yours”, the translator seemed to have trouble with the word friend, “is causing trouble in town. I will send two of my servants to dispose of him and this mechanical creature. No-one will see what happens, or care or remember anything, but it is an irritating detail. I hope we will hear no more of your powerful, important friends.” The translator paused on the words “powerful” and “important”, as if the chief Oid had doubts about his newly acquired vessel’s story.

Suzanne felt a moment of sorrow for the two creatures. She hoped they had no families, but they were trying to make her into a vessel, whatever that meant, and she did not want to be a vessel.

“Your magnificence must be very famous to have many servants to do your bidding?” she said, hoping to get him talking.

“I once was very great,” said the creature, through the translator. It now sounded bored and disappointed. “But I had too much pity in me. I will not make that mistake with your friends. Take the meat back to its cell. Keep it well fed.”

The meat snuck a quick peek at the creature. Its face was turned away from her but it seemed taller and thinner than the Oids she had seen and its fur a shade or two lighter. It wore a turban, an elaborately decorated blue shawl and pants. Great, thought Suzanne, a fancy dress Oid.

She was jerked off the floor and turned around by her two guards before she could see much else.

“You can never have too much pity,” she said over her shoulder, as she was marched out of the room, but if the chief Oid heard he did not bother to respond.

The journey back was a repeat of the journey out, but this time Suzanne looked about more, desperately hoping to see something that might give her an edge in a break out attempt. Suzanne had never broken out of anywhere, but she did not want to be a vessel and knew that Rods was close, so The Max must be in port. Although Rods and Igor had proved useful when a hive of creatures wanted to kill her, a whole base of these big creatures might be a different matter. If she could get out and get to the port somehow – perhaps she could cover herself and walk there – they could all slip away without troublesome shoot outs. So how could she get out?

In the corridor leading to her cage, Suzanne noted big, blue buttons up high, beside each cell door. When her captors reached her cage, one Oid slapped the button and the cage door clicked open. So that was it. Suzanne had just a moment to try to fix in her mind exactly where the button was in relation to the door before her guards literally threw her into the cage. She staggered and fell forward, fortunately half on the mattress.

“Ouch! Hey!”

One guard pulled the door shut, testing that it was locked, and they both left.

The cruise director picked herself up. Previously she had just glanced at the wire on the door. As there were also strong bars she could not squeeze between the wire had been just a detail, but that was before she had known of the button to release the lock. If she could cut the wire, she thought she could get her arm and hand between the bars. Hmmm! Suzanne was about to reach for her knife when one of the guards returned. She pretended languid indifference, leaning against the wall, careful not to meet the creature’s eye while it pushed a bowl of something hot through the slot at the bottom of the door, then left.

Suzanne knelt down, sniffed, and tentatively nibbled what looked to her like porridge, with an enormous plastic spoon stuck in the middle of it. Had the Oid cooks read up on the care and feeding of humans? Suzanne used the spoon to take another bite, suddenly realising that she was very hungry. She didn’t start choking or vomiting so she took some more. Before she knew it she had finished half the bowl, then thought she might as well finish the serving. She had to keep up her strength for any escape.

Then the lights went out. Around her, the animals held in their pens squeaked or called or growled. Suzanne stood quietly letting her eyes adjust. There was a faint light from the desk she had seen at the far end of the corridor. She took out her knife and began to climb up the bars on the door. There was work to be done.

Down near the docks, after creeping through some back alleys, Rods had found the car hire business. The premises of this independent enterprise had more furniture than the abandoned shop into which Rods and Igor had been lured, which was about all that could be said in its favour. The proprietor was older than the Oids Rods had encountered so far, at least to judge from the flecks of white in his hair and in his face, but almost as hostile until he realised that Rods wanted to hire a car. The trader produced one of the gold coins he had brought along, which the businessperson Oid examined suspiciously, to the point of biting it. He then took them to a shed at the back in which stood three dusty electric cars. These looked like oversized versions of the golf carts Rods had seen in films but with closed in sides.

Rods had never encountered electric cars before, but he knew of them and a brief fiddle with the controls told him most of what he wanted to know about driving one. The real surprise was the rental fee, which was outrageous. He did not want to buy the car, he explained through the translator, just rent it for a day or so. That was not the owner’s problem. A human was a risk and had to be priced accordingly. After some haggling, Rods handed over two more gold coins and a lot more of his credit balance than he thought wise, to gain access to a pre-loved vehicle which happened to be the only one charged up. After some further argument, the proprietor produced two of what might have been Oid towels which Rods arranged around the side panels and part of the front wind screen. No point in drawing any more attention to themselves than they had to. An inquiry about road rules drew a puzzled response. You drove on the road, what other rule did the human want to know about? Fair enough. Rods and Igor piled into the front and only seat which was so large that Rods had to perch on the front to reach the steering wheel and drove off.

This time they were not troubled by idle locals. They passed two Oids who did not even look at the car. A little further on another large group was moving down the main road in the opposite direction – Rods suspected they may have the same group that tried to surround himself and Igor in the disused shop – and straggling out onto the road. The trader swerved around them, crouching low in his seat, and drove on before anyone realised a human was driving.

Igor, who had said very little since the shop looked at Rods and then at the controls in succession several times.

“Don’t start. It’s easier to get around this way.”

“Not in front or behind,” said Igor. “By your side.”

“Does that worry you?”

“No, just different.”

The businesses and two-storey high rises of the main town quickly gave way to a long, potholed road with sprawling mansions fronted by massive walls on both sides. Each had a clan symbol prominently displayed on the front gate. The quality end of town. Rods found the one they had been looking for, about 10 minutes slow drive out of town on the right, playing chicken with the occasional vehicle going in the other direction – not because he wanted to but because trying to pass them peaceably on the left or right did not really work. He also found two Oids who were standing at the open front gate of the mansion scanning the road. These two newcomers to Rods’ game of survival, drew back when they saw the rental and tried to seem casual, as if they just happened to be out there watching for traffic. Rods drove on, pretending that he had not noticed the huge creatures, while noting, out of the corner of his eye, the pistols both Oids carried in wild-west style holsters. Okay, that would make it would be a fair fight – that is if they ever got a chance to draw their weapons.

Out of sight of the house he U-turned in the nearly deserted road and drove back passing the clan house just as the two guards were getting their own electric car, identical to the human rental albeit a little cleaner, out into the drive way. One guard was standing by the car with its side door open, looking around.

Rods did not look at the Oids heavies, although they stared at him, but kept his speed down while the guard jumped in the Oid vehicle. Rods knew what had to be done and had no qualms about doing it. The real question was where? They drove on with the guards following at what they thought was a discrete distance, perhaps imagining that because Rods' vehicle had no rear view mirror – it was an optional extra – the human would not realise he was being followed by two gigantic creatures. In fact, Igor was keeping tabs on them through a small camera in the back of his neck.

They had passed a couple of side roads on the way up and Rods headed for the closest which, as it happened, was to the left. He turned down it, ensuring that his new friends could see the turn.

“Still coming,” announced Igor. Rods drove on, having no idea where he was going, but at least there were no other creatures or vehicles about. The houses thinned out and then gave way entirely to a straggly Oid forest consisting mainly of what looked to Rods to be palm trees, with an undergrowth of palm bushes. The edge of the giant dome that enclosed the base could be seen a few kilometres away. Off to their right, behind the trees, the world’s sun was setting. The road degenerated into a track and veered off to the left, along the edge of a marsh. Rods looked again and realised the marsh was a lake with large colonies of green plants – algae or seaweed – floating in it. He did not like the look of the lake or of the creatures he could see scuttling over the floating green islands. He also thought he saw a tentacle flip out of the water and drag one of the creatures from a seaweed pad into the water. To judge from the lack of boats on the water or homes on the water’s edge, the locals did not like their little inland sea much either. That suited him, but where to do the job? The track took them over what could be called a hill – an elevation. It would have to do, particularly as he had no idea how much track he had left. The light was now fading, loading the odds more in his favour.

“When we stop,” he told Igor, “I’m getting out and going into the forest. Do not follow me.”

“Don’t follow you,” said Igor.

“Get out of the car and just keep looking around, as if you’re confused.”

“Confused? Looking around? How can I be confused?”

“Just looking around then.”

“Looking around.”

“But don’t look at the car coming up behind us. Look out to sea or to the left front, as I’ve gone that way.”

“Left front. Gone that way.” The robot sounded uncertain.

“I’ll still have the comms unit so I’ll tell you if you’re doing anything wrong. Our friends will come up soon and get out of their car. Do not look at them. If they shoot at you, you can shoot at them, but make sure I’m not in the way.”

“I get to shoot. I’m not in front or behind?”

“Yes, you get to shoot, and you are not in front or behind.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Rods knew that was one of the robot’s standard responses, but it still reassured him. He moved into the forest, drawing his silenced Heckler & Koch, just as the vehicle of their would-be killers appeared on the crest of the hill. The car slowed, as the two Oids saw the car parked with Igor beside it, looking out to sea and along the track, anywhere but at the two Oids. The trader crouched down so that he was below the line of undergrowth and moved forward, as softly as he could. Stalking in a forest was quite a new experience for him, but the ground was covered in a form of thick grass which deadened any noise he made. So far so good.

Rods planned to head out into the forest and then loop in behind his opponents for a quick, quiet disposal. It was a sound plan, but like most plans hit a snag.

A dim shape off to his right moved. Rods slipped on light amplification goggles – he always carried them off ship – to see what looked much like a grey spider but was the size of a Great Dane. Rods was in its territory.

“Grrrr!”

The creature’s massive teeth gleamed white against a grey, hairy body. A dog-spider.

Rods stopped, wondering what he should do, just as the Oid vehicle also stopped and both Oids got out, drawing their guns. They looked around, both through caution and because they were puzzled. One whispered something to the other, Rods caught the faint Oompahing, but his translator did not say anything. The other replied with what sounded like a high-pitched chuckle. Perhaps they thought he had gone into the forest, and the dog spiders were doing their work for them. Two other dog-spiders joined the first in front of the earthman, growling at him. Yet more of the spider dogs discovered the two Oids, also growling at them, causing the guards to Oomph nervously. Rods realised the spot he had chosen must be close to a large nest of the creatures.

The trader debated shooting the dog-spiders but he did not know just how they would react, and he was just metres from his would-be assassins who really deserved the first shot. He backed away, towards the track, keeping below the line of shrubs and watching the Oids out of the corner of one eye. His new pets followed.

While still wondering what to do, he was aware that one of the Oids was pointing out to sea, Oompahing in alarm, and the other opened the car door to grab something. Rods risked a quick look, through the goggles, and realised that the object was a missile launcher. Beyond the Oid a massive, dark shape loomed, but Rods' eye and mind dismissed it as one of the seaweed pads that had drifted close in shore. All he could think about was what the launcher could do to Igor, his main hope of survival. He pivoted, let the laser sight find a spot on the creature’s skull and fired, then spun back to fire twice more, as the dog-spiders lunged at him.

He dropped two and the others vanished, just as the human heard shots, explosions compared to soft phuts of his silenced weapon, followed by a shrill scream. Rods turned just in time to see the second Oid wrapped in the tentacle of some gigantic creature, a cross between a squid and a cray fish that had risen from the little sea. The place he had chosen for a quiet encounter has proved to be very nasty indeed.

Having seen the size of the Oid fauna, Rods was now not surprised the guards had brought along a rocket launcher. It had not been for Igor at all. But now he thought that a rocket launcher might boost the odds in his favour. Rods dashed around to where he had dropped the second Oid, just in time to see the creature’s body being dragged away by one of the dog spiders. Rods stepped on the tube and, after a brief tug of war, the Oid’s lifeless hands released the device. The Earthman picked up the launcher, enormous for him, and, aware that the dog spiders were now edging around the front of the vehicle, jumped in the car.

“Igor, back in the car quick.”

“It’s now full dark,” said Hoss. He had been listening and watching on Igor’s in-built cams the whole time but had wisely kept his mouth shut. The two Clarks had also been watching from the ship, but only Hoss was allowed to communicate. “Are you going to come back tonight?”

“Not yet. I think I have a plan here.”

The Oid car was identical to the one he had been driving. No key was required. All Rods had to do was press a start button and thump the accelerator which he did, running over one of the dog-spiders with a satisfying crunch and yelp, in the process.

He drove up beside the rental.

“You’ve seen me drive?” he asked Igor over the Comms link. Igor was smart enough for that, especially when still in contact with Max.

“Yes.”

“Then do that now. U-turn behind me, and quick.”

He turned his newly acquired vehicle to see, with alarm, a Host of the dog-spiders on the track. Off to the right. In the forest, he thought he could see the beginning of a mass of webs. He had blundered into a colony of the things. It was time to depart. Igor finished a clumsy U-turn.

“Follow me and don’t stop!”

“Don’t stop. Gotit.”

They drove off. Rods hit one of the creatures, the impact echoing through the car, leaving a red smear on the road. The rest scattered. Off to his left, a grey body loomed out of the water, tentacles waving but the creature left the two cars alone. Once out of spider danger zone, Rods slowed to a more sedate pace. He wanted to mull over his plan, although there was not much to mull over. He had now dropped two bodies or had dropped one and had been present at the death of another. Fortunately, it had happened well away from the settlement and it was a lawless place. The bodies were not going to be found any time soon. But when his recently departed playmates failed to report in, the list of suspects in their disappearance would not be a long one. There was no comms unit in his newly acquired vehicle and the Oid heavies did not seem to have such equipment, from the little he had seen of them. So maybe there was a chance for his plan if he and Igor went right away. If it worked and they did find Suzanne, he would tell her this was not a good planet for Emily.