"The Horror From the Frozen Waste"
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dochermes"The Horror From the Frozen Waste"
12/3-12/6/2002
I.
The entire world seemed to be an absolute contrast of black and white, the utter darkness of an overcast sky without stars or moon above and hundreds of miles of snow and ice below them. The stealthcopter CORBY sped through the night with eerie silence. Someone standing on the frozen ground below would have heard nothing more than a vague whisper as the craft whipped by overhead. Nor was it showing any lights. Breaking a dozen laws as usual, the CORBY was a black silent shape that was almost impossible to detect.
In the cabin, Lauren Sable Reilly was at the control sticks. She was wearing the full KDF field suit, including the helmet which was patched in to the ship's systems so she could read displays directly on the inside of her visor. Sable had not spoken for forty minutes and Unicorn couldn't stand the silence anymore.
"Hey, captain," blurted out the little blonde in the co-pilot seat, "Why the hell is this place called Greenland anyway? It should be called Frozen Useless Waste if you ask me. Did it used to be nice and something happened or what?" Ashley Whitaker was also wearing the field suit of heavy boots, snug pants and waist-high jacket with its inner layer of armor and dozen hidden gadgets. But she had left her helmet off, and the long platinum blonde hair shone like silver in the subdued pastel lights of the cabin.
"I really have to concentrate," Sable snapped, but continued in a softer tone. "We have winds out there of seventy miles an hour with gusts up to one hundred, and even the CORBY needs to be flown carefully under those conditions." She reached over and patted her teammate on the shoulder. "Unless you want to take the stick?"
"Yeah, right," Unicorn said. "Like I'm half as good a pilot as you are. Sorry, Sable, I just can't keep silent for too long. Tell you what. I'm going to crawl in the back and maybe ask Trom Girl to come up here. Okay?"
"That's a good idea," Sable answered. "I want her to start taking some readings. Yeah, go ahead."
Unbuckling the restraint straps across her chest and shins, Ashley slid open the clear partition behind the seats and squeezed through into the rear compartment. This was a simple metal compartment, with a bench on one side that sat three people comfortably. The other wall was taken up with rows of drawers holding supplies and equipment. As Unicorn entered, a young woman sitting on the floor in front of those drawers glanced up.
Megan Salenger was a Human orphan who had been raised by the Trom, but although her mind had been raised to genius levels, she still retained normal emotions. At twenty-three, she was a slim woman of medium height, with a shock of thick black hair and dark alert eyes in an inquisitive face. Like the others, she was wearing a KDF field suit but hers had even more gadgets and devices built into it. As Unicorn entered the compartment, Trom Girl slid the drawer shut where she had been taking inventory.
"Hey there, science nerd!" Ashley sang out cheerfully. "Everything in its proper place?"
"As far as I can tell," answered Megan. "But it seems someone has hidden three KitKat candy bars in the medical supplies."
"Well, sure. What if I get low blood sugar? Or just depressed?"
Megan got up on her knees to face the blonde. "Aren't you on co-pilot duty, Ashley?"
"Aw, captain wants you to start taking readings. I guess we're getting near the UN base she mentioned." Unicorn turned and leaned back against the wall of equipment drawers. "Maybe she'll even explain why we're out here in so-called Greenland."
"We'll see," Trom Girl said as she crawled up through the partition, closing it behind her. Unicorn stretched her legs out and grinned at the two men seated on the bench opposite her. "So you boys having as much fun as I am?"
"About the same, I figure," Josef grunted. He had been dozing, it seemed.
Next to him, Sheng Mo-Yuan lowered the newspaper he had brought and tucked the pen inside it, next to the half-finished crossword puzzle. He looked Northern Chinese, but something about the beaked nose and high cheekbones contradicted that. Actually from the realm of Chujir, Sheng had the ability to use gralic force to enhance his body's strength or speed or durability but only one attribute at a time. He smirked at Unicorn and said, "Let me guess. Sable was too quiet and you can't keep from talking that long, right?"
Ashley laughed quietly. "Jeez, you guys are getting to know me too well. I can't get away with anything."
From the cabin, Sable announced, "The United Nations Research Facility BOREAS is just ahead. We'll be landing in three minutes. Everyone get gear ready, including helmets. The reading is nineteen below out there, not counting the wind chill."
II.
Sable was on the radio with the UN base as Megan took the controls and made a landing so adroit that no one aboard even felt it. The CORBY taxied into a huge semi-circular hangar which already contained a Bell helicopter and a light Skyways prop plane. The hangar doors slid shut behind them, cutting off the howling wind and snow which had blown inside with their entrance.
As they had come in to land, Sable had switched on the CORBY's seldom-used exterior lights so as not to alarm the base. The KDF members had been surprised at how extensive the facility was. They had expected a few quonset huts with maybe a cabin or two but the BOREAS consisted of nine good-sized buildings connected with enclosed walkways. It was a permanent facility that had cost a fortune to construct and which conducted experiments and research in many fields.
Inside the hangar, popping open the pressurized hatches, the five KDF members climbed out onto the cement floor. The interior of the hangar was brightly lit but chilly. Two mechanics working on the prop plane watched the CORBY roll inside but did not approach it. Ashley fastened the three foot tapered sheath that held her Unicorn horn across her back after she emerged. She had no unusual powers of her own without her talisman. As Sable removed her helmet and tucked it under one arm, a green metal door opened and two men in suits and lab coats approached quickly.
"Welcome to the BOREAS facility," said the taller and older man. He had longish white hair and steel-rimmed glasses, and he spoke with a noticeable Danish accent. "Please come into the reception area, it's never comfortable out here."
Even though their field suits had built-in Trom power units to keep them warm, Sable thanked the man and led her team to follow through the door and up a flight of stairs to emerge in a wide white-tiled corridor. "I'm Sable Reilly, head of this team. I assume you're Dr Knudsen? We talked briefly over the radio."
"Yes, yes, I'm Knudsen. Not Director of the facility I'm afraid, that would be Dr Harkens. But I've been asked to escort you folks from the Kenneth Dred Foundation to your quarters and fill you in on what the problem is here."
"Fine," Sable said. She was not aware of her own attractiveness, with the glossy black hair, snub nose and full lips and dark eyes she had inherited from an Irish father and Cuban mother. Sable had always been an over-achiever, too serious and introspective to be socially active and that hadn't changed since she had joined the KDF. Even now, as both Knudsen and the other man smiled at her ingratiatingly, she hardly noticed.
They marched down branching corridors for a while, arriving in a section where two rows of wooden doors marked with numbers faced each other across a narrow hallway. Before that hall was a cozy lounge area with a couch, comfortable chairs, a table littered with magazines and a vending machine filled with junk food. Dr Knudsen gestured for everyone to seat themselves and took a chair himself.
"I might as well get right to it. I never heard of the Kenneth Dred Foundation before. When we started having our problem here, our security people went to the Danish government for help, and they for some reason went to the Americans. Apparently, there is a US agency called the Mandate which specializes in inexplicable events. So I'm told. A team of three Mandate investigators came here and THEY promptly disappeared."
Knudsen got up and poured himself coffee from a pot on a hot plate into a styrofoam cup. "Please, feel free to help yourself to anything you want to eat or drink here." He sat back down again and sipped the hot coffee gingerly.
"This was when the Mandate contacted us," Sable continued for him. "Our purposes overlap to some extent. We don't always agree, in fact we have fought more than we have worked together. But the Mandate recognized our expertise was needed."
The second facility man had not spoken so far. He was a chubby, middle-aged fellow with a round nose and myopic eyes. "Forgive me, Miss Reilly. No one seems to be able to tell me, just who ARE you people? What is the KDF?"
"This is Dr Moeller," Knudsen interrupted to say.
"We're a non-profit research organization. We investigate sightings of the unknown, the supernatural, the paranormal, whatever you want to call it." Sable sighed. "That's about it. We've had some success, so sometimes we get called in when regular methods fail. Now, what's this about disappearances?"
Dr Knudsen shook his head and looked over the five young people seated before him. "In the past three months, eleven of our researchers have wandered away. Into subzero cold, hundreds of miles from the nearest Inuit village. Here on an uninhabited ice sheet on the east coast, eleven intelligent well-balanced men have simply walked out into the wilderness and certain death."
"I see. Any common link between them?"
"None that I can see. We have researchers from a dozen countries working here on projects. The missing men were from the UK, France, Japan, Australia. They didn't know each other before meeting here. As far as I can tell, they were acting normally until their disappearance." Knudsen stared at Sable with almost pleading in his eyes. "As you can imagine, morale has collapsed. Quite a few of our people have closed their projects down and returned home."
Sable had been sitting upright anyway, but now she seemed still more at attention. "Very well. We'll start investigating immediately. We'll need names and pertinent information on the missing men. We need the projects they were working on and we need to talk to the people they were working with. Can you provide all this?"
"Yes, miss. I've already typed that all up for those Mandate agents. I will give you copies of all the information."
"And of course you have searched the area as far as you can?" Sable asked.
"Of course. In addition to the plane, we have Lindfren snowrunners, they are like snowmobiles but big as a truck. We haven't found anything." Knudsen slowly stood up, as if suddenly weary. "I've got a folder with all the information on the missing men in my office. I'll get it for you."
"Josef, would you go with him and bring that folder back? Thanks. Megan and Sheng, please go to the CORBY and bring our personal gear here. Make sure the CORBY is sealed. Dr Knudsen, which rooms will be ours?"
The scientist waved vaguely at the hallways. "Oh, the first three are vacant. I'll have someone bring you electronic keycards but right now the locks aren't activated. Wait, it's almost 1600 hours, the cafeteria will be open for the next two hours. Meals will be provided, of course. Josef, is it? Would you come with me, my office is quite a distance from here..."
As everyone left, Sable turned to Unicorn and smiled slightly. "What's your reaction, Ashley?"
The little blonde unzipped her field suit jacket and settled back in the armchair. "To what? This whole outpost in the middle of absolutely nowhere, worse than being stuck at the North Pole... which I bet we are not that far from. Who wouldn't get cabin fever and wander off to freeze and get it over with?!"
"Well, that's one theory," Sable said. "But three Mandate agents also disappeared. Those are tough-minded, down-to-earth people, as you know since we've fought them. Unicorn, my hunch is that some force took them against their will somehow. Something called them. Something called them out into the darkness."
Unicorn shuddered visibly. "Knock it off, boss. What are you trying to do, give me the creeps or something?"
III.
An hour later, everyone had settled in. They each had a knapsack or duffel bag with clothing and personal effects, and they had divided up the rooms with Josef and Argent as roommates, Ashley and Megan sharing another room and Sable getting a room to herself "Because," as Unicorn scoffed, "she's captain and all that."
Getting a map of the facility, they all went to the cafeteria and devoured a meal of fried chicken with biscuits that was of fair quality. In their black commando suits, they received even more stares than they would have in any case because newcomers were rare at the facility. Unicorn's habit of bestowing warm smiles at anyone who stared at her didn't discourage attention.
Back at the small lounge area near their rooms, the five of them passed around the pages about the eleven missing men. More than an hour passed as they memorized all the information. Finally, getting the report assembled again, Sable turned to Trom Girl. "Any bugs nearby?"
"I can detect no surveillance equipment within the immediate area," Megan said as she put away a small monitor device. "There are closed-circuit TVs in the halls, of course, but nothing near us."
"All right then," Sable announced. "What patterns do you guys see in these disappearances?"
"They're coming closer together," the Blind Archer said. "There were two weeks between the first missing man and the second one. Every disappearance since has come more closely after the preceding one."
"I see no attempts at ensuring survival," Argent put in next. "Four of them left in their pajamas and slippers. Most were wearing the clothing they had on that day. Only one was last seen wearing a parka, and that was because he was crossing over to the hangar."
"That's suggestive." Sable tapped the folder together neatly and put it to one side. "It could be this is a way of simply killing the staff through exposure. But there's another possibility. Suppose a vehicle is waiting just outside the facility grounds to take these men away. There's a chance of frostbite or pneumonia of course, but if they were hauled inside a heated vehicle within four minutes, they would survive."
"In which case, someone is kidnapping scientists," Josef offered. "Not for ransom, we haven't heard of any communication. Then why?"
Unicorn broke in gleefully, "Someone wants their expertise! Some Mad Scientist has a project underway and he needs these researchers to pick their brains."
"Could be," Sable said. "Four of them are biologists, three are climatologists and there's a human behavior specialist, a computer programmer and two technicians. If you see any project that could use those skills, let me know." She sat up straighter and placed her palms on the table in front of her. "We're searching the area in the CORBY. I will be using my perception and Megan will be probing with the Trom sensors. I want the rest of you questioning the co-workers, the usual procedure. Snoop as much as you can get away with."
Raising a small hand almost like a student, Ashley Whitaker asked, "Unofficially, captain, just going by your instincts, what do you think we're dealing with here? Spies? International crime ring? Some big old monster? Midnight War sorcerers, what?"
"It's too early to guess," Sable answered. "But my hunch, for what it's worth? Something powerful and malevolent is out there summoning these people for an unknown purpose. Starting right now, we stay in groups of two or three in case one of us gets the urge to wander out into the Arctic Circle in our pajamas." She stood up. "Megan, let's take the CORBY out. Sheng, Josef, Ashley... you start investigating. And keep an eye on each other."
III.
That evening and the next day dragged in routine investigation that seemed to yield nothing of value. Sable and Trom Girl searched in widening circles from the facility for six hours and found nothing unexpected. They returned, tired and cranky and disappointed. Josef and Sheng stood by while Ashley did most of the questioning. A pretty young blonde appearing out of nowhere was a complete delight to a hundred and forty mostly middle-aged men who answered every question as fully as they possibly could, just to keep her around.
Ashley was neither dumb nor shallow. She had been raised by her mother, the first Unicorn, to be an adventuress and she had sharp insights when talking to people. With Josef and Sheng standing nearby and listening, they caught many details that slipped out when the researchers were reacting to Ashley's presence. Finally, when it was nearly midnight and a different shift was taking over, the three KDF members started trudging back to the rooms they had been assigned.
In the room she would share with Megan, Ashley took a steaming hot shower, wrapped her hair in a towel and came out wearing slippers, baggy maroon sweatpants and an oversized red T-shirt with a picture of a rainbow on it. She looked about twelve. Coming out to the lounge area, she saw Sheng had tugged off the heavy boots, hung his field jacket on the back of a chair and was sprawled on a couch in just the pants and crewneck shirt.
Josef Jubilec kept the full field suit on. He had the Y-shaped leather quiver on a chair next to him and was rubbing his own formula resin into a longbow he had crafted himself from yew. Seeing Unicorn approach, the Blind Archer grumbled, "I for one didn't learn anything significant!"
"Me neither," Sheng added. He sat up and watched Josef tending the bow. "Is that going to be useful outside?"
"With that wind, no. But I may need it inside, one never knows." Josef watched Ashley with a wry smile. "You made a lot of friends today."
"Hah! Story of my life. If there was a bar here, they'd be all be buying me drinks. Hey, here comes the boss." She stood up as Sable and Megan came down the hallway. They all filled each other in and sourly concluded that no one had gotten anywhere.
Sable had her helmet in the crook of her arm as she faced her team. "Off to a slow start, I guess. Not every case is resolved the same day we start it. Okay, tomorrow... Josef, you will come with us in the CORBY. You may be able to pick up on a life form that we missed. Then we'll start going over every detail of what happened the days those men disappeared until we see some discrepancy. All right, everyone is off duty for now. It's twelve-thirty, we'll go for breakfast at eight."
As she started toward her room, Sable suddenly stopped. "On second thought, I'll stay with you girls. If some outside force picks me and makes me sneak outside, I'd better not be alone."
"There's only a double bed in the room," Unicorn started to say, but Sable interrupted her with "I'll be fine on the floor with a cushion and a blanket." She glanced over at Josef and Sheng. "You two are both light sleepers. If one of you acts up, the other is bound to hear him."
"Right," Argent said. "Okay, breakfast at eight and back on the job." He went into the room opposite the women's, and Josef went to get a magazine from the table in the lounging area before joining him. With a muttered, "Night," the Blind Archer closed the door.
In their room, Unicorn flung herself dramatically on the double bed. "Off duty at last." She examined her nails with minute interest and said, "When's lights out, captain?"
"In a few minutes, I'd suggest. It's been a long day." She unzipped the heavy field jacket and dropped it on a chair. "I'm too tired for a shower right now. I'll take it in the morning." Going to the dresser on which a small TV set sat, she found a folded blanket. Before entering the room, Sable had taken a small cushion off the couch in the lounge area and she made herself comfortable on the carpet.
Megan Salenger took a few minutes to strip down to the flexible Trom armor, which looked like a bodysuit of dark silk. Only her head above the neck, her hands and feet were exposed but the armor was comfortable enough. Arranging her suit in a specific way on the chair next to the bed, Trom Girl adjusted everything so that she could don it in a hurry.
"Fussy, fussy," mumbled Unicorn as she got under the covers, buried her face in the pillow and went immediately to sleep. Climbing in on the other side, Megan stretched out and slowed her breathing, also dropping off instantly. Only Sable, weary as she was, remained awake and thinking in the darkness. When she fell asleep, her mind was still working.
When the fluorescent light in the ceiling came back on, all three women woke up promptly. Unicorn peered at the clock-radio on the nightstand and cried, "Oh, come on. Four-sixteen in the morning?" before she remembered the situation.
Argent was standing in the doorway, his face much paler than its usual tawny shade. "It's Josef. He's heading for the exit. He won't listen."
Leaping up, Sable yanked on her boots and snatched up her field jacket on the run. "Come on!" she barked. While Megan and Unicorn hurried to get into their field suits, she followed Sheng out into the hallway. Josef Jubilec was walking calmly, not in an particular rush, around the corner. Sable raced to catch up to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and demanded, "Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm fine," the Blind Archer answered in a dull lifeless voice. "I will be right back."
"Let me pin him down," Sheng told her. "I can hold him without hurting him."
"No, wait. Let's let him go. Quick, get your helmet and his. If we're going outside, we're going to need the protection." She followed the slow-walking Archer down to where a security guard sat at a plain desk before a pair of emergency exit doors. The man got to his feet as he saw the two newcomers approaching. As he watched in complete confusion, he saw the young Asian guy came running up and jam a visored helmet down on the sleepwalking man's head, hooking it up to the high-collared jacket. Josef did not resist having the helmet put on, he seemed hardly to notice.
As Argent lowered his own helmet on and sealed it, his suit's internal power unit kicked in and he was completely protected from outside conditions. "That's better. Guard, I think you better step aside."
"Wait, wait, you can't go outside without clearance. The permission slip has to be approved.." But the guard stopped mid-sentence as Josef drove a hard straight punch to his solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him. He fell to a seated position and the Blind Archer pressed down on the horizontal bars which opened the double door. Gale force wind and snow rushed in as he stepped outside.
"Keep close to him, Sheng!" Sable yelled. "I'm going for my own helmet, I'll be right behind you." The team leader spun and ran back the way she had come, almost slamming into Unicorn and Trom Girl hurrying toward her. They were both in full field suits now, and Ashley had the Unicorn horn slung over one shoulder.
"Here's your helmet," Megan said, handing it over.
"Great. Good thinking. Listen. Josef is outside and Sheng is on his tail. I'm going after them. I want you two to get the CORBY ready and outside in record time. Don't take off, just taxi after us. You can locate us by the Links in our suits. Get going!" Yanking the helmet on and sealing her suit, Sable dove through the double metal doors and closed them behind her.
Outside, floodlights on high poles illuminated everything brilliantly. Snow whipped and swirled in the wind, but inside her suit she felt snug and comfortable. Sable caught sight of Argent following Josef across the paved area toward the darkness beyond. Cutting in the communications circuit, she said "I'm coming up behind you, Sheng. Stick with him."
"Glad to hear it," the Chujiran's voice answered in her earpods. "The way he's acting has me freaking out. He's under some kind of mind control, that's certain."
In a few minutes, she had caught up to him. "Okay, Sheng, let's see where he goes. I have the girls fetching the CORBY so it'll be available."
"Good thinking," Argent said. He was keeping just out of reach of the trudging Blind Archer. "Hey, Josef. Can you hear me? Reply."
A listless voice crackled in his earpods, "I'm fine. I'll be right back."
"The exact same words he used before," Sable said. Alongside Sheng, she started following the Blind Archer as he trudged into the darkness.
"I'm getting a reading of eleven below zero," Argent told her through the communications system. "We're protected, but how could those eleven men survive in just their pajamas? They'd be dead in a few minutes. You'd think their bodies would have been found right away."
"I don't know," Sable replied. "With the constant wind, tracks don't last long. I have a theory they were picked up right away by someone in a vehicle of some sort. But this facility is isolated, that doesn't seem practical unless they went to a base nearby."
"And you didn't find anything like that today?"
"No. We were looking, too." Sable looked down at her legs. "The snow is light and fluffy, so at least we don't have to struggle through it. Sheng, did Josef say or do anything unusual before he left?"
"Not that I know of," the Chuujiran fighter answered. "I woke up when he got out of bed. I asked if he was going to the bathroom or what, I was half-asleep. He said that same thing that he was fine and he'd be right back, and he was talking in that zombie voice you heard. So I woke you guys up and here we are."
"At least it seems we'll find out what's behind this. And at least Josef is protected by his suit." Sable exhaled sharply. "I can't imagine how someone in his pajamas could survive out here long enough to get off the base."
The wind got louder and there was a whiteout for a few minutes. Sable and Argent stood still and waited for it to pass, and when they could see again, they found that Blind Archer had kept going. As they hurried to catch up with him, Sheng grumbled, "I vote our next case is in Rio, okay?"
From their earpods, Megan's calm voice broke in. "Captain, the ground is too uneven to continue. I will take the CORBY up to fifty feet and follow at the same distance behind. Approved?"
"Sure, Trom Girl," answered Sable. "Use your own judgement. Are you picking up anything on the CORBY sensors?"
"Nothing. Just you three. No heat sources. No signs of life."
Unicorn's cheerful voice interrupted, "Just like my Friday nights."
"Carry on, then. Wait, what is Josef doing?" Sable stopped Sheng with a hand on his arm.
Just ahead of them, one of the huge dunes of snow had blown away to reveal it was resting on a cairn of stones. Ten feet high, the rocks had been clearly piled up deliberately to build a cairn at least twenty feet across and extending back another thirty feet. That human beings had been able to erect such a structure under these conditions was almost impossible to believe, but there it was. One side had an opening at waist level, and Josef got down to crawl through it.
"Here we go," Sable announced. "Trom Girl, Unicorn, you watching this?"
"You bet," Unicorn's voice rang in their helmets. "I don't think we can get the CORBY through that opening, ha ha. Okay, we'll stand by."
Sable slid open a panel on the side of her helmet and made a few adjustments. "Megan, are you picking up my video feed?"
"Perfectly, captain. Whatever you are looking at is being broadcast to a monitor here in the cabin."
"All right, then. Sheng, we might as well get this done." Bending over, Sable made her way through the opening into the cairn with Argent close behind her. The light-enhancing systems in their visors let them see well enough in the utter darkness within. A small bulb over the visor emitted ultra-violet radiation to add to the illumination. It was not as good as a sunny afternoon, but they could make out faces.
Inside, the cairn was a roughly circular open space with only a chest-high pile of stone blocks in its center forming a sort of platform. Standing next to that platform was a man who, despite the fact he was on his feet, seemed dead. His face was blue and stiff, his sunken cheeks and frost-coated eyes made him a grisly sight. He was wearing only dress slacks, white shirt and a suit jacket, all frozen stiff.
Josef Jubilec had stopped next to the cadaver and was standing motionless, arms at his sides.
Still worse, evenly spaced around the interior of the cairn were ten corpses. They were propped up against the inner wall in seated positions with their heads hanging forward. The missing scientists. Sable's sharp eye saw that the fingers of the corpses were raw and ragged, with frozen blood all over the hands. They had done that to themselves building this cairn.
Stepping forward cautiously, her hand on the butt of her resonance gun, Sable felt something tickling on the surface of her mind. She had faced telepaths before and her defenses went up instantly. "Sheng?"
"I feel it," the Chujiran answered. "A telepathic mind poking around. I've got my Tel Shai discipline ready. He's not getting in." After a second, he wondered, "But where is he?"
"I see him," said Sable. "But.. I find this impossible to believe. Look. On top of the pile of rock."
"Oh, come ON! It can't be. That's a goddam shrimp."
Atop of the platform of piled up stones, a segmented muli-legged form stirred. Its eyestalks wavered. The creature was small, no more than three inches long and a bright crimson. As they approached, the shrimp scuttled around to face them.
"New slaves. Good," hissed a voice in their heads. Telepathy was a peculiar experience. One did not hear telepathic communication in the same clarity as hearing a voice speak, it was more like remembering what had been said a moment earlier. "Come close. Come close."
Sable concentrated on keeping her defenses strong. Yet she had to open up to some extent to communicate. "What are you?"
"Only one of my kind. Survivor. Darthim created me. Darthim banished me here long long ago."
The KDF leader stopped just beyond where she could have reached the creature. "But you're a shrimp! How can you be alive under these conditions? What keeps you from freezing?"
"Need all gralic power stay alive. Nothing else left but mind control. You new slaves. You bring wood. Fire. Heat."
"Like hell," Sheng said. "We're taking our friend and getting out of here. Don't think you can stop us, either. The idea of a literal shrimp giving orders!" The young Chujiran took a long stride forward and stopped abruptly. He seemed to be struggling against something holding him back.
Sable had drawn her airgun and extended her arm full-length, ready to send a resonance cap at the creature. But she felt sluggish and tired, her head was foggy and it was getting hard to think. Despite the tiny size of the red creature, its telepathic powers were strong. Sheng shuddered and took another step forward, then nearly fell and caught himself. Sable's arm had lowered and she forced it up again. The two KDF members resisted more determinedly than they had ever defied anything before. Their free will was at stake. Both of them lurched and took an unsteady step, forcing the ancient creature on the platform to divide its focus between them.
And, in an instant, Josef Jubilec brought his arm up and then down fast with all his strength, smashing a tight fist down directly on the crustacean. Its exoskeleton shattered, already brittle from the subzero temperatures, and its segmented body flew apart in different directions.
At that time, the stifling mental pressure inside their heads switched off and all three KDF members fell to their knees. It took long minutes to get their bearings again. Argent was first to arise, wobbly but determined. He gave Sable a hand getting up and they both went to where the Blind Archer was holding onto the stone pile to haul himself back on his feet.
"Glad- glad you did that," Sheng gasped as he leaned on the stone pile himself for support. "I'm still dizzy from trying to fight that monster. Sable, you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. I just need a minute. Good work, Josef. That shrimp was trying too hard to control both Sheng and me at the same time that his hold on you must have weakened. Is that it?"
"Yes," the Blind Archer answered sourly. "I was fighting him the whole time. Worst experience of my life! If you two hadn't come in here, I don't think I would have been able to ever break free. Damn bug."
Sable prodded a few fragments of the creature gingerly with the toe of her boot. "I was expecting something huge, a Dragon or an Obanchu. Some creature of the Sulla Chun. Not a tiny shrimp, for a God's sake! The strange experiments the Darthim carried out.. Well, it's dead now."
"We hope," Argent said. "Maybe Ashley should come in here and do that bit with the horn to remove any gralic power still clinging?"
"It wouldn't hurt," Sable agreed. She had been walking around the circle of frozen corpses. "And these poor guys...What a shame. I guess we will report to the Director at BOREAS that we found this cairn with the bodies inside. They will come out in snowrunners and transport the bodies back to the facility."
In her earpods, Sable heard Unicorn's voice crackle, "How are you gonna explain all this craziness, boss?"
"I'm not," Sable replied. "It'll be one of those mysteries that people write articles about and spin theories over for decades but which never get solved. Only the five of us will ever know what happened here today."
3/27/2015
12/3-12/6/2002
I.
The entire world seemed to be an absolute contrast of black and white, the utter darkness of an overcast sky without stars or moon above and hundreds of miles of snow and ice below them. The stealthcopter CORBY sped through the night with eerie silence. Someone standing on the frozen ground below would have heard nothing more than a vague whisper as the craft whipped by overhead. Nor was it showing any lights. Breaking a dozen laws as usual, the CORBY was a black silent shape that was almost impossible to detect.
In the cabin, Lauren Sable Reilly was at the control sticks. She was wearing the full KDF field suit, including the helmet which was patched in to the ship's systems so she could read displays directly on the inside of her visor. Sable had not spoken for forty minutes and Unicorn couldn't stand the silence anymore.
"Hey, captain," blurted out the little blonde in the co-pilot seat, "Why the hell is this place called Greenland anyway? It should be called Frozen Useless Waste if you ask me. Did it used to be nice and something happened or what?" Ashley Whitaker was also wearing the field suit of heavy boots, snug pants and waist-high jacket with its inner layer of armor and dozen hidden gadgets. But she had left her helmet off, and the long platinum blonde hair shone like silver in the subdued pastel lights of the cabin.
"I really have to concentrate," Sable snapped, but continued in a softer tone. "We have winds out there of seventy miles an hour with gusts up to one hundred, and even the CORBY needs to be flown carefully under those conditions." She reached over and patted her teammate on the shoulder. "Unless you want to take the stick?"
"Yeah, right," Unicorn said. "Like I'm half as good a pilot as you are. Sorry, Sable, I just can't keep silent for too long. Tell you what. I'm going to crawl in the back and maybe ask Trom Girl to come up here. Okay?"
"That's a good idea," Sable answered. "I want her to start taking some readings. Yeah, go ahead."
Unbuckling the restraint straps across her chest and shins, Ashley slid open the clear partition behind the seats and squeezed through into the rear compartment. This was a simple metal compartment, with a bench on one side that sat three people comfortably. The other wall was taken up with rows of drawers holding supplies and equipment. As Unicorn entered, a young woman sitting on the floor in front of those drawers glanced up.
Megan Salenger was a Human orphan who had been raised by the Trom, but although her mind had been raised to genius levels, she still retained normal emotions. At twenty-three, she was a slim woman of medium height, with a shock of thick black hair and dark alert eyes in an inquisitive face. Like the others, she was wearing a KDF field suit but hers had even more gadgets and devices built into it. As Unicorn entered the compartment, Trom Girl slid the drawer shut where she had been taking inventory.
"Hey there, science nerd!" Ashley sang out cheerfully. "Everything in its proper place?"
"As far as I can tell," answered Megan. "But it seems someone has hidden three KitKat candy bars in the medical supplies."
"Well, sure. What if I get low blood sugar? Or just depressed?"
Megan got up on her knees to face the blonde. "Aren't you on co-pilot duty, Ashley?"
"Aw, captain wants you to start taking readings. I guess we're getting near the UN base she mentioned." Unicorn turned and leaned back against the wall of equipment drawers. "Maybe she'll even explain why we're out here in so-called Greenland."
"We'll see," Trom Girl said as she crawled up through the partition, closing it behind her. Unicorn stretched her legs out and grinned at the two men seated on the bench opposite her. "So you boys having as much fun as I am?"
"About the same, I figure," Josef grunted. He had been dozing, it seemed.
Next to him, Sheng Mo-Yuan lowered the newspaper he had brought and tucked the pen inside it, next to the half-finished crossword puzzle. He looked Northern Chinese, but something about the beaked nose and high cheekbones contradicted that. Actually from the realm of Chujir, Sheng had the ability to use gralic force to enhance his body's strength or speed or durability but only one attribute at a time. He smirked at Unicorn and said, "Let me guess. Sable was too quiet and you can't keep from talking that long, right?"
Ashley laughed quietly. "Jeez, you guys are getting to know me too well. I can't get away with anything."
From the cabin, Sable announced, "The United Nations Research Facility BOREAS is just ahead. We'll be landing in three minutes. Everyone get gear ready, including helmets. The reading is nineteen below out there, not counting the wind chill."
II.
Sable was on the radio with the UN base as Megan took the controls and made a landing so adroit that no one aboard even felt it. The CORBY taxied into a huge semi-circular hangar which already contained a Bell helicopter and a light Skyways prop plane. The hangar doors slid shut behind them, cutting off the howling wind and snow which had blown inside with their entrance.
As they had come in to land, Sable had switched on the CORBY's seldom-used exterior lights so as not to alarm the base. The KDF members had been surprised at how extensive the facility was. They had expected a few quonset huts with maybe a cabin or two but the BOREAS consisted of nine good-sized buildings connected with enclosed walkways. It was a permanent facility that had cost a fortune to construct and which conducted experiments and research in many fields.
Inside the hangar, popping open the pressurized hatches, the five KDF members climbed out onto the cement floor. The interior of the hangar was brightly lit but chilly. Two mechanics working on the prop plane watched the CORBY roll inside but did not approach it. Ashley fastened the three foot tapered sheath that held her Unicorn horn across her back after she emerged. She had no unusual powers of her own without her talisman. As Sable removed her helmet and tucked it under one arm, a green metal door opened and two men in suits and lab coats approached quickly.
"Welcome to the BOREAS facility," said the taller and older man. He had longish white hair and steel-rimmed glasses, and he spoke with a noticeable Danish accent. "Please come into the reception area, it's never comfortable out here."
Even though their field suits had built-in Trom power units to keep them warm, Sable thanked the man and led her team to follow through the door and up a flight of stairs to emerge in a wide white-tiled corridor. "I'm Sable Reilly, head of this team. I assume you're Dr Knudsen? We talked briefly over the radio."
"Yes, yes, I'm Knudsen. Not Director of the facility I'm afraid, that would be Dr Harkens. But I've been asked to escort you folks from the Kenneth Dred Foundation to your quarters and fill you in on what the problem is here."
"Fine," Sable said. She was not aware of her own attractiveness, with the glossy black hair, snub nose and full lips and dark eyes she had inherited from an Irish father and Cuban mother. Sable had always been an over-achiever, too serious and introspective to be socially active and that hadn't changed since she had joined the KDF. Even now, as both Knudsen and the other man smiled at her ingratiatingly, she hardly noticed.
They marched down branching corridors for a while, arriving in a section where two rows of wooden doors marked with numbers faced each other across a narrow hallway. Before that hall was a cozy lounge area with a couch, comfortable chairs, a table littered with magazines and a vending machine filled with junk food. Dr Knudsen gestured for everyone to seat themselves and took a chair himself.
"I might as well get right to it. I never heard of the Kenneth Dred Foundation before. When we started having our problem here, our security people went to the Danish government for help, and they for some reason went to the Americans. Apparently, there is a US agency called the Mandate which specializes in inexplicable events. So I'm told. A team of three Mandate investigators came here and THEY promptly disappeared."
Knudsen got up and poured himself coffee from a pot on a hot plate into a styrofoam cup. "Please, feel free to help yourself to anything you want to eat or drink here." He sat back down again and sipped the hot coffee gingerly.
"This was when the Mandate contacted us," Sable continued for him. "Our purposes overlap to some extent. We don't always agree, in fact we have fought more than we have worked together. But the Mandate recognized our expertise was needed."
The second facility man had not spoken so far. He was a chubby, middle-aged fellow with a round nose and myopic eyes. "Forgive me, Miss Reilly. No one seems to be able to tell me, just who ARE you people? What is the KDF?"
"This is Dr Moeller," Knudsen interrupted to say.
"We're a non-profit research organization. We investigate sightings of the unknown, the supernatural, the paranormal, whatever you want to call it." Sable sighed. "That's about it. We've had some success, so sometimes we get called in when regular methods fail. Now, what's this about disappearances?"
Dr Knudsen shook his head and looked over the five young people seated before him. "In the past three months, eleven of our researchers have wandered away. Into subzero cold, hundreds of miles from the nearest Inuit village. Here on an uninhabited ice sheet on the east coast, eleven intelligent well-balanced men have simply walked out into the wilderness and certain death."
"I see. Any common link between them?"
"None that I can see. We have researchers from a dozen countries working here on projects. The missing men were from the UK, France, Japan, Australia. They didn't know each other before meeting here. As far as I can tell, they were acting normally until their disappearance." Knudsen stared at Sable with almost pleading in his eyes. "As you can imagine, morale has collapsed. Quite a few of our people have closed their projects down and returned home."
Sable had been sitting upright anyway, but now she seemed still more at attention. "Very well. We'll start investigating immediately. We'll need names and pertinent information on the missing men. We need the projects they were working on and we need to talk to the people they were working with. Can you provide all this?"
"Yes, miss. I've already typed that all up for those Mandate agents. I will give you copies of all the information."
"And of course you have searched the area as far as you can?" Sable asked.
"Of course. In addition to the plane, we have Lindfren snowrunners, they are like snowmobiles but big as a truck. We haven't found anything." Knudsen slowly stood up, as if suddenly weary. "I've got a folder with all the information on the missing men in my office. I'll get it for you."
"Josef, would you go with him and bring that folder back? Thanks. Megan and Sheng, please go to the CORBY and bring our personal gear here. Make sure the CORBY is sealed. Dr Knudsen, which rooms will be ours?"
The scientist waved vaguely at the hallways. "Oh, the first three are vacant. I'll have someone bring you electronic keycards but right now the locks aren't activated. Wait, it's almost 1600 hours, the cafeteria will be open for the next two hours. Meals will be provided, of course. Josef, is it? Would you come with me, my office is quite a distance from here..."
As everyone left, Sable turned to Unicorn and smiled slightly. "What's your reaction, Ashley?"
The little blonde unzipped her field suit jacket and settled back in the armchair. "To what? This whole outpost in the middle of absolutely nowhere, worse than being stuck at the North Pole... which I bet we are not that far from. Who wouldn't get cabin fever and wander off to freeze and get it over with?!"
"Well, that's one theory," Sable said. "But three Mandate agents also disappeared. Those are tough-minded, down-to-earth people, as you know since we've fought them. Unicorn, my hunch is that some force took them against their will somehow. Something called them. Something called them out into the darkness."
Unicorn shuddered visibly. "Knock it off, boss. What are you trying to do, give me the creeps or something?"
III.
An hour later, everyone had settled in. They each had a knapsack or duffel bag with clothing and personal effects, and they had divided up the rooms with Josef and Argent as roommates, Ashley and Megan sharing another room and Sable getting a room to herself "Because," as Unicorn scoffed, "she's captain and all that."
Getting a map of the facility, they all went to the cafeteria and devoured a meal of fried chicken with biscuits that was of fair quality. In their black commando suits, they received even more stares than they would have in any case because newcomers were rare at the facility. Unicorn's habit of bestowing warm smiles at anyone who stared at her didn't discourage attention.
Back at the small lounge area near their rooms, the five of them passed around the pages about the eleven missing men. More than an hour passed as they memorized all the information. Finally, getting the report assembled again, Sable turned to Trom Girl. "Any bugs nearby?"
"I can detect no surveillance equipment within the immediate area," Megan said as she put away a small monitor device. "There are closed-circuit TVs in the halls, of course, but nothing near us."
"All right then," Sable announced. "What patterns do you guys see in these disappearances?"
"They're coming closer together," the Blind Archer said. "There were two weeks between the first missing man and the second one. Every disappearance since has come more closely after the preceding one."
"I see no attempts at ensuring survival," Argent put in next. "Four of them left in their pajamas and slippers. Most were wearing the clothing they had on that day. Only one was last seen wearing a parka, and that was because he was crossing over to the hangar."
"That's suggestive." Sable tapped the folder together neatly and put it to one side. "It could be this is a way of simply killing the staff through exposure. But there's another possibility. Suppose a vehicle is waiting just outside the facility grounds to take these men away. There's a chance of frostbite or pneumonia of course, but if they were hauled inside a heated vehicle within four minutes, they would survive."
"In which case, someone is kidnapping scientists," Josef offered. "Not for ransom, we haven't heard of any communication. Then why?"
Unicorn broke in gleefully, "Someone wants their expertise! Some Mad Scientist has a project underway and he needs these researchers to pick their brains."
"Could be," Sable said. "Four of them are biologists, three are climatologists and there's a human behavior specialist, a computer programmer and two technicians. If you see any project that could use those skills, let me know." She sat up straighter and placed her palms on the table in front of her. "We're searching the area in the CORBY. I will be using my perception and Megan will be probing with the Trom sensors. I want the rest of you questioning the co-workers, the usual procedure. Snoop as much as you can get away with."
Raising a small hand almost like a student, Ashley Whitaker asked, "Unofficially, captain, just going by your instincts, what do you think we're dealing with here? Spies? International crime ring? Some big old monster? Midnight War sorcerers, what?"
"It's too early to guess," Sable answered. "But my hunch, for what it's worth? Something powerful and malevolent is out there summoning these people for an unknown purpose. Starting right now, we stay in groups of two or three in case one of us gets the urge to wander out into the Arctic Circle in our pajamas." She stood up. "Megan, let's take the CORBY out. Sheng, Josef, Ashley... you start investigating. And keep an eye on each other."
III.
That evening and the next day dragged in routine investigation that seemed to yield nothing of value. Sable and Trom Girl searched in widening circles from the facility for six hours and found nothing unexpected. They returned, tired and cranky and disappointed. Josef and Sheng stood by while Ashley did most of the questioning. A pretty young blonde appearing out of nowhere was a complete delight to a hundred and forty mostly middle-aged men who answered every question as fully as they possibly could, just to keep her around.
Ashley was neither dumb nor shallow. She had been raised by her mother, the first Unicorn, to be an adventuress and she had sharp insights when talking to people. With Josef and Sheng standing nearby and listening, they caught many details that slipped out when the researchers were reacting to Ashley's presence. Finally, when it was nearly midnight and a different shift was taking over, the three KDF members started trudging back to the rooms they had been assigned.
In the room she would share with Megan, Ashley took a steaming hot shower, wrapped her hair in a towel and came out wearing slippers, baggy maroon sweatpants and an oversized red T-shirt with a picture of a rainbow on it. She looked about twelve. Coming out to the lounge area, she saw Sheng had tugged off the heavy boots, hung his field jacket on the back of a chair and was sprawled on a couch in just the pants and crewneck shirt.
Josef Jubilec kept the full field suit on. He had the Y-shaped leather quiver on a chair next to him and was rubbing his own formula resin into a longbow he had crafted himself from yew. Seeing Unicorn approach, the Blind Archer grumbled, "I for one didn't learn anything significant!"
"Me neither," Sheng added. He sat up and watched Josef tending the bow. "Is that going to be useful outside?"
"With that wind, no. But I may need it inside, one never knows." Josef watched Ashley with a wry smile. "You made a lot of friends today."
"Hah! Story of my life. If there was a bar here, they'd be all be buying me drinks. Hey, here comes the boss." She stood up as Sable and Megan came down the hallway. They all filled each other in and sourly concluded that no one had gotten anywhere.
Sable had her helmet in the crook of her arm as she faced her team. "Off to a slow start, I guess. Not every case is resolved the same day we start it. Okay, tomorrow... Josef, you will come with us in the CORBY. You may be able to pick up on a life form that we missed. Then we'll start going over every detail of what happened the days those men disappeared until we see some discrepancy. All right, everyone is off duty for now. It's twelve-thirty, we'll go for breakfast at eight."
As she started toward her room, Sable suddenly stopped. "On second thought, I'll stay with you girls. If some outside force picks me and makes me sneak outside, I'd better not be alone."
"There's only a double bed in the room," Unicorn started to say, but Sable interrupted her with "I'll be fine on the floor with a cushion and a blanket." She glanced over at Josef and Sheng. "You two are both light sleepers. If one of you acts up, the other is bound to hear him."
"Right," Argent said. "Okay, breakfast at eight and back on the job." He went into the room opposite the women's, and Josef went to get a magazine from the table in the lounging area before joining him. With a muttered, "Night," the Blind Archer closed the door.
In their room, Unicorn flung herself dramatically on the double bed. "Off duty at last." She examined her nails with minute interest and said, "When's lights out, captain?"
"In a few minutes, I'd suggest. It's been a long day." She unzipped the heavy field jacket and dropped it on a chair. "I'm too tired for a shower right now. I'll take it in the morning." Going to the dresser on which a small TV set sat, she found a folded blanket. Before entering the room, Sable had taken a small cushion off the couch in the lounge area and she made herself comfortable on the carpet.
Megan Salenger took a few minutes to strip down to the flexible Trom armor, which looked like a bodysuit of dark silk. Only her head above the neck, her hands and feet were exposed but the armor was comfortable enough. Arranging her suit in a specific way on the chair next to the bed, Trom Girl adjusted everything so that she could don it in a hurry.
"Fussy, fussy," mumbled Unicorn as she got under the covers, buried her face in the pillow and went immediately to sleep. Climbing in on the other side, Megan stretched out and slowed her breathing, also dropping off instantly. Only Sable, weary as she was, remained awake and thinking in the darkness. When she fell asleep, her mind was still working.
When the fluorescent light in the ceiling came back on, all three women woke up promptly. Unicorn peered at the clock-radio on the nightstand and cried, "Oh, come on. Four-sixteen in the morning?" before she remembered the situation.
Argent was standing in the doorway, his face much paler than its usual tawny shade. "It's Josef. He's heading for the exit. He won't listen."
Leaping up, Sable yanked on her boots and snatched up her field jacket on the run. "Come on!" she barked. While Megan and Unicorn hurried to get into their field suits, she followed Sheng out into the hallway. Josef Jubilec was walking calmly, not in an particular rush, around the corner. Sable raced to catch up to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and demanded, "Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm fine," the Blind Archer answered in a dull lifeless voice. "I will be right back."
"Let me pin him down," Sheng told her. "I can hold him without hurting him."
"No, wait. Let's let him go. Quick, get your helmet and his. If we're going outside, we're going to need the protection." She followed the slow-walking Archer down to where a security guard sat at a plain desk before a pair of emergency exit doors. The man got to his feet as he saw the two newcomers approaching. As he watched in complete confusion, he saw the young Asian guy came running up and jam a visored helmet down on the sleepwalking man's head, hooking it up to the high-collared jacket. Josef did not resist having the helmet put on, he seemed hardly to notice.
As Argent lowered his own helmet on and sealed it, his suit's internal power unit kicked in and he was completely protected from outside conditions. "That's better. Guard, I think you better step aside."
"Wait, wait, you can't go outside without clearance. The permission slip has to be approved.." But the guard stopped mid-sentence as Josef drove a hard straight punch to his solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him. He fell to a seated position and the Blind Archer pressed down on the horizontal bars which opened the double door. Gale force wind and snow rushed in as he stepped outside.
"Keep close to him, Sheng!" Sable yelled. "I'm going for my own helmet, I'll be right behind you." The team leader spun and ran back the way she had come, almost slamming into Unicorn and Trom Girl hurrying toward her. They were both in full field suits now, and Ashley had the Unicorn horn slung over one shoulder.
"Here's your helmet," Megan said, handing it over.
"Great. Good thinking. Listen. Josef is outside and Sheng is on his tail. I'm going after them. I want you two to get the CORBY ready and outside in record time. Don't take off, just taxi after us. You can locate us by the Links in our suits. Get going!" Yanking the helmet on and sealing her suit, Sable dove through the double metal doors and closed them behind her.
Outside, floodlights on high poles illuminated everything brilliantly. Snow whipped and swirled in the wind, but inside her suit she felt snug and comfortable. Sable caught sight of Argent following Josef across the paved area toward the darkness beyond. Cutting in the communications circuit, she said "I'm coming up behind you, Sheng. Stick with him."
"Glad to hear it," the Chujiran's voice answered in her earpods. "The way he's acting has me freaking out. He's under some kind of mind control, that's certain."
In a few minutes, she had caught up to him. "Okay, Sheng, let's see where he goes. I have the girls fetching the CORBY so it'll be available."
"Good thinking," Argent said. He was keeping just out of reach of the trudging Blind Archer. "Hey, Josef. Can you hear me? Reply."
A listless voice crackled in his earpods, "I'm fine. I'll be right back."
"The exact same words he used before," Sable said. Alongside Sheng, she started following the Blind Archer as he trudged into the darkness.
"I'm getting a reading of eleven below zero," Argent told her through the communications system. "We're protected, but how could those eleven men survive in just their pajamas? They'd be dead in a few minutes. You'd think their bodies would have been found right away."
"I don't know," Sable replied. "With the constant wind, tracks don't last long. I have a theory they were picked up right away by someone in a vehicle of some sort. But this facility is isolated, that doesn't seem practical unless they went to a base nearby."
"And you didn't find anything like that today?"
"No. We were looking, too." Sable looked down at her legs. "The snow is light and fluffy, so at least we don't have to struggle through it. Sheng, did Josef say or do anything unusual before he left?"
"Not that I know of," the Chuujiran fighter answered. "I woke up when he got out of bed. I asked if he was going to the bathroom or what, I was half-asleep. He said that same thing that he was fine and he'd be right back, and he was talking in that zombie voice you heard. So I woke you guys up and here we are."
"At least it seems we'll find out what's behind this. And at least Josef is protected by his suit." Sable exhaled sharply. "I can't imagine how someone in his pajamas could survive out here long enough to get off the base."
The wind got louder and there was a whiteout for a few minutes. Sable and Argent stood still and waited for it to pass, and when they could see again, they found that Blind Archer had kept going. As they hurried to catch up with him, Sheng grumbled, "I vote our next case is in Rio, okay?"
From their earpods, Megan's calm voice broke in. "Captain, the ground is too uneven to continue. I will take the CORBY up to fifty feet and follow at the same distance behind. Approved?"
"Sure, Trom Girl," answered Sable. "Use your own judgement. Are you picking up anything on the CORBY sensors?"
"Nothing. Just you three. No heat sources. No signs of life."
Unicorn's cheerful voice interrupted, "Just like my Friday nights."
"Carry on, then. Wait, what is Josef doing?" Sable stopped Sheng with a hand on his arm.
Just ahead of them, one of the huge dunes of snow had blown away to reveal it was resting on a cairn of stones. Ten feet high, the rocks had been clearly piled up deliberately to build a cairn at least twenty feet across and extending back another thirty feet. That human beings had been able to erect such a structure under these conditions was almost impossible to believe, but there it was. One side had an opening at waist level, and Josef got down to crawl through it.
"Here we go," Sable announced. "Trom Girl, Unicorn, you watching this?"
"You bet," Unicorn's voice rang in their helmets. "I don't think we can get the CORBY through that opening, ha ha. Okay, we'll stand by."
Sable slid open a panel on the side of her helmet and made a few adjustments. "Megan, are you picking up my video feed?"
"Perfectly, captain. Whatever you are looking at is being broadcast to a monitor here in the cabin."
"All right, then. Sheng, we might as well get this done." Bending over, Sable made her way through the opening into the cairn with Argent close behind her. The light-enhancing systems in their visors let them see well enough in the utter darkness within. A small bulb over the visor emitted ultra-violet radiation to add to the illumination. It was not as good as a sunny afternoon, but they could make out faces.
Inside, the cairn was a roughly circular open space with only a chest-high pile of stone blocks in its center forming a sort of platform. Standing next to that platform was a man who, despite the fact he was on his feet, seemed dead. His face was blue and stiff, his sunken cheeks and frost-coated eyes made him a grisly sight. He was wearing only dress slacks, white shirt and a suit jacket, all frozen stiff.
Josef Jubilec had stopped next to the cadaver and was standing motionless, arms at his sides.
Still worse, evenly spaced around the interior of the cairn were ten corpses. They were propped up against the inner wall in seated positions with their heads hanging forward. The missing scientists. Sable's sharp eye saw that the fingers of the corpses were raw and ragged, with frozen blood all over the hands. They had done that to themselves building this cairn.
Stepping forward cautiously, her hand on the butt of her resonance gun, Sable felt something tickling on the surface of her mind. She had faced telepaths before and her defenses went up instantly. "Sheng?"
"I feel it," the Chujiran answered. "A telepathic mind poking around. I've got my Tel Shai discipline ready. He's not getting in." After a second, he wondered, "But where is he?"
"I see him," said Sable. "But.. I find this impossible to believe. Look. On top of the pile of rock."
"Oh, come ON! It can't be. That's a goddam shrimp."
Atop of the platform of piled up stones, a segmented muli-legged form stirred. Its eyestalks wavered. The creature was small, no more than three inches long and a bright crimson. As they approached, the shrimp scuttled around to face them.
"New slaves. Good," hissed a voice in their heads. Telepathy was a peculiar experience. One did not hear telepathic communication in the same clarity as hearing a voice speak, it was more like remembering what had been said a moment earlier. "Come close. Come close."
Sable concentrated on keeping her defenses strong. Yet she had to open up to some extent to communicate. "What are you?"
"Only one of my kind. Survivor. Darthim created me. Darthim banished me here long long ago."
The KDF leader stopped just beyond where she could have reached the creature. "But you're a shrimp! How can you be alive under these conditions? What keeps you from freezing?"
"Need all gralic power stay alive. Nothing else left but mind control. You new slaves. You bring wood. Fire. Heat."
"Like hell," Sheng said. "We're taking our friend and getting out of here. Don't think you can stop us, either. The idea of a literal shrimp giving orders!" The young Chujiran took a long stride forward and stopped abruptly. He seemed to be struggling against something holding him back.
Sable had drawn her airgun and extended her arm full-length, ready to send a resonance cap at the creature. But she felt sluggish and tired, her head was foggy and it was getting hard to think. Despite the tiny size of the red creature, its telepathic powers were strong. Sheng shuddered and took another step forward, then nearly fell and caught himself. Sable's arm had lowered and she forced it up again. The two KDF members resisted more determinedly than they had ever defied anything before. Their free will was at stake. Both of them lurched and took an unsteady step, forcing the ancient creature on the platform to divide its focus between them.
And, in an instant, Josef Jubilec brought his arm up and then down fast with all his strength, smashing a tight fist down directly on the crustacean. Its exoskeleton shattered, already brittle from the subzero temperatures, and its segmented body flew apart in different directions.
At that time, the stifling mental pressure inside their heads switched off and all three KDF members fell to their knees. It took long minutes to get their bearings again. Argent was first to arise, wobbly but determined. He gave Sable a hand getting up and they both went to where the Blind Archer was holding onto the stone pile to haul himself back on his feet.
"Glad- glad you did that," Sheng gasped as he leaned on the stone pile himself for support. "I'm still dizzy from trying to fight that monster. Sable, you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. I just need a minute. Good work, Josef. That shrimp was trying too hard to control both Sheng and me at the same time that his hold on you must have weakened. Is that it?"
"Yes," the Blind Archer answered sourly. "I was fighting him the whole time. Worst experience of my life! If you two hadn't come in here, I don't think I would have been able to ever break free. Damn bug."
Sable prodded a few fragments of the creature gingerly with the toe of her boot. "I was expecting something huge, a Dragon or an Obanchu. Some creature of the Sulla Chun. Not a tiny shrimp, for a God's sake! The strange experiments the Darthim carried out.. Well, it's dead now."
"We hope," Argent said. "Maybe Ashley should come in here and do that bit with the horn to remove any gralic power still clinging?"
"It wouldn't hurt," Sable agreed. She had been walking around the circle of frozen corpses. "And these poor guys...What a shame. I guess we will report to the Director at BOREAS that we found this cairn with the bodies inside. They will come out in snowrunners and transport the bodies back to the facility."
In her earpods, Sable heard Unicorn's voice crackle, "How are you gonna explain all this craziness, boss?"
"I'm not," Sable replied. "It'll be one of those mysteries that people write articles about and spin theories over for decades but which never get solved. Only the five of us will ever know what happened here today."
3/27/2015
