Achilles' Heel, Part V: Between The Devils And The Deep Blue Sea
By C. Mage
"What is the status of the Soldier Units?"
"Closing on target, moving at high speed. Contact in seventeen seconds."
The Hive-Mother smiled. "Excellent."
Lara drew her MK5s, leaning back against one of the resinous supports of the tunnel. She quickly pulled on her goggles and switched them from infrared to ultraviolet, then looked back down the corridor. The creatures reminded her of ants, except these ants were the size of Dobermans and had oversized mandibles. Their chitin was red, and from the way their mandibles dripped, Lara had no doubt she was facing huge fire ants. She backed into the water filtration room and shut the door, reaching into her backpack and pulling out the small grapplegun.
The grapplegun she carried was based upon the one David had when she first met him, and recent developments in polymer research had enabled her to have the original desin modified. The winch inside could now easily support four people, although it would overheat quickly if overloaded. The line was now able to support a thousand pounds, while being extremely thin and compact when wound. Add in the ergonomic nature of the grapplegun, nearly invisible when worn on the back of the forearm, and the self driving mini-pitons, and the device was quite capable of letting nearly anyone emulate the Amazing Spider-Man.
How appropriate, considering I'm up against insects. She fired the line and let the winch pull her on top of one of the larger pipes. As she crouched there, waiting for the ants to chew their way in, Lara racked her brain, trying to figure out a way to get past the ants as well as the other defenses of the base. If this base is using biological means of protection, then half my equipment will be useless. They're designed to defeat radar, sonar, electronic security...no, there must be some electronic security here, but how can I get past the organic security?
The door opened and Lara swore, firing her guns as they came in, finding out that her armor-piercing rounds weren't as efficient as she had hoped...
"What do the sensors say about our intruder?" The Hive-Mother moved forward on six legs and she came into the light, revealing herself to her minions. From the waist up, she would have been able to pass as human, in a dark alley. Of course, if someone had taken a closer look at her, the multifaceted eyes, the mandibles jutting from her fanged mouth and complete lack of even a simple nostril might have convinced that person to run away...if they hadn't already seen the yellow and black striped bee's body from the waist down. Not that the minions paid much attention; all of them had undergone a similar transformation, although not uniform. Some looked very human, except for small details like vestigal wings or legs, but the others looked like horrific amalgamations of insect and human, from different species of insects like ants, bees, praying mantises, roaches and wasps. One of the minions was clearly some sort of humanoid mosquito, two fresh bodies sitting by her position, tied up and nearly drained of blood. She turned to the Hive-Mother and said, "The Soldiers do not smell anything out of the ordinary. She is either dead or she escaped into the water once again."
"Select members of the Ruler Castes to enter and investigate. Instruct the Soldiers to scour the room for foreign matter and to consume it, and signal the underwater patrols. Their dinner may have arrived early. Are there any wounded Soldiers?"
"Yes."
"Have them report to the Spawning Chamber and prepare to die so the Broods may grow strong." She turned from the displays and went to her chambers to commune with the Masters, report her progress. Once that was done, she planned to play with one of the newer drones, one that had once been a bodybuilder obsessed with increasing his strength by any means possible. Now, he was a nearly mindless drone, fit for only one thing.
And she planned to use him for that as many times as she could. Human hosts had their drawbacks, but enjoying the act of copulation was a welcome benefit...
It had come to her as she thought about David. She remembered a bright sunny day when she'd seen him taking care of a few chores, one of them being taking a box with the word POISON written on it and shaking out granules of dry chemical around the house.
"What are you doing, Dave?" Lara was stunning in her baby-blue bikini, heading out by the pool. She enjoyed those few days during the summer when she could catch some rays, not to mention seeing David catch up on his landscaping ideas.
"We've had a rash of ants lately, and I think someone imported a particularly hardy breed of fire ants here, so I'm going to get rid of them."
"How so?"
"Well, this stuff is guaranteed to get rid of the pests. It's designed to kill the little buggers by killing off the whole hill. You see, it looks and smells like food to them, but it's actually a slow-acting poison. They eat it and bring it back to the queen, and bingo! No more ants in the pantry."
"I rather thought insects had well-developed senses of smell."
"They do, but not that well developed. See, ant soldiers are tenacious, but they're not bloodhounds or brain surgeons. They don't make judgments based upon creative thought, they act on instinct. They'll just pick up the food and bring it to the queen, not realizing that it's lethal until they're lying on their back with their legs curled in the air."
Lara looked at David. "You truly enjoy the sound of your own voice, don't you?"
"Trust me, Lara, it helps to learn a bit about biology. Plus, it's reassuring to know that there are some subjects out there where I'm the expert." David grinned. "Give me a few more minutes and I'll join you in the pool."
"Who said I was going to the pool, Dave?" Lara smiled and sauntered back inside, her hips swaying ever so suggestively.
David watched the door close, then hurriedly scattered the contents of the box all over the courtyard. "They'll get the idea," he said quickly as he ran inside...
Lara blinked, then realized that she had a shot at surviving as she riddled two of the ants, then switched to the semi-auto 12-gauge with the sabot rounds. Four more dropped in rapid succession, the sabot rounds punching through the chitinous exoskeleton. I hate it when things get messy, she groused as she jumped down next to two of the dead ants, then proceeded to rip open their thoraxes and abdomens and reach into the carcasses. She drew out a foul-smelling slime and closed her eyes, then smeared it all over her body rapidly, coating herself in the thick ooze.
The ants moved towards her, then stopped in confusion. They had been commanded to find her and kill her, but as they sensed the air, she seemed to disappear from their "view". Their antennae moved around frantically and Lara stayed absolutely still, fighting the urge to retch. She considered that for a moment, then that was precisely what she did.
The ants moved about as they picked up a new scent, the smell of digestive fluids. They moved closer, then sensed foreign organic particles. In their minds, they remembered their instincts as they recalled similar smells when gutting their prey with their mandibles.
Their antennae moved more slowly now. Nobody had ever tossed their recent meals out through the emergency exit in their experience, ergo, the only way they would smell it would be from the target's disemboweled corpse. They sensed their wounded, but ignored the wounded and dead and proceeded to head back to their pens.
Lara followed. She had never liked insects; as a child, she'd always had someone nearby with a handy shoe to take care of them. She may had grown since then, but so had the bugs. It took all her will to move with the others, staying near the rear. I am glad no one is here videotaping this...I must look a sight! She shook her head. Dave, I hope you appreciate what I've been through to help you...literally been through.
As she traveled, she looked over the structure she moved through. Her pace had to be brisk to stay in step with the other ants, but she did have time to gauge the interior defenses. Instead of cameras and motion sensors, the walls and ceiling were latticed with small glowing blue objects, each the size of a golf ball. They were firmly planted in the membranes of the hallways, givin Lara the uncomfortable feeling of literally walking through the insides of a living creature. The floor was made of a resilient, but spongy substance that reminded Lara of rubber. The substance covered the interior halls and rooms, and the glistening surface made Lara wonder if the material was actually manufactured...or spat up.
What was annoying about the interior was that if there had been any signs or landmarks that indicated the varied functions of the base, they had been absorbed by the compound that covered everything. Lara had no idea where she was. They must know the locations by instinct. No, that cannot be right. Right, think. There are no signs or distinctive colors, so sight is out. They're not eating their way through the halls, so it's obviously not taste. The areas are cavernous, prone to echoes, so it's not by sound, and it's certainly not by touch.
A thought occurred to her and she sniffed the air tentatively. Sure enough, the air had a distinct tinge to it, but it was not overpowering, but subtle. Smell. She smiled under her mask of gunk. That's why it's so hard to break into this place. Their sense of smell is much higher, and they must have lines in the floor that they follow to get from place to place. Lara brought out a small ultraviolet lamp and slowly moved back from the group when they reached an eight-way intersection. When the group had moved past the threshold of the next tunnel, Lara turned on the light.
She smiled as five different lines, each a foot wide, revealed themselves. Two of them sported a different shade of bluish white, indicating that some other creature must have laid them. Bread crumbs for Antsel and Beetle to follow.
As she looked, she noted one that looked dimmer, not as well used by the insects in question. I've got no other leads...and since I don't think the Spear would be an exhibit for these monsters, that might be the most likely direction.
She looked around for other insects. The passage was vacant. She crossed her fingers and headed down the fainter path, trying to remember the pace of the ants and trying not to move too fast or too slow. As Lara moved, she became aware of the fluids tha coated her body were starting to become sticky. I'd better hurry before this gunk dries out, or else I'm going to find myself once more coated by insect juice, only it'll be of the digestive variety.
"Well?" asked the Hive-Mother impatiently.
"We were unable to find any trace of the target, apart from evidence that the target suffered from nausea potent enough for her to eject the contents of her stomach."
The Hive-Mother looked at the representative from the Leader Caste, a female with the physical characteristics of a firefly. The woman was once quite beautiful, but had sold her soul to the Masters for eternal beauty. She now viewed herself the loveliest of her breed, although her standards were hardly the same anymore. The graceful female torso that had once graced th covers of Vogue and Vanity Fair was largely intact, but her delicate hands were now claws, she had two sets of legs instead of one, a large bulb of glowing flesh sat affixed to her tailbone and her once-flawless face was now something only an entomologist could appreciate. "Find where the surviving Soldiers are and have them brought to me. I want their stomachs expunged so I can confirm her death. If there's one thing I've learned about this Croft woman, it's that she just doesn't know when to lay down and die." The firefly-woman nodded and went back to her post.
It doesn't make sense. Perhaps she did escape through the waterdock, and it's even possible that she evaded capture and consumption by our patrols. But I can't afford to accept the idea that Lara Croft was turned back so easily. "Scan the entire base and report anything out of the ordinary."
One of the grasshopper drones turned to her. "Define, 'out of the ordinary'."
The Hive-Mother sighed. Only after the human race had been Processed could she afford to live with such blind acceptance of order. "Anything that indicates non-conformist behavior."
The drone nodded, returning to his post.
Lara stopped outside a door that irised open as she approached. She entered without stopping as the door closed behind her.
Only after she entered the large chamber did she stop and stare in awe and horror.
Inside the room were large walls of flesh and sinew, rising from the floor to the ceiling. Within the walls were large blister-like lesions, and inside each one was a person...or what used to be a person. The figures inside were all undergoing a radical transformation, from human to insectoid. Some were barely started, whereas others appeared to be much further along in their metamorphoses than others. No two insect forms looked exactly alike.
Lara moved through the spaces between the walls, growing horror building in her heart as she realized what was going on. These were all people once...God in Heaven, this is abominable!
She walked to the far side of the room and stopped as she saw that one part of the chamber had been set aside from the rest of the walls. This part of the room was made up of a semi-circular wall with other people inside. In the middle of the semi-circle was a large orb filled with clear green fluid, which pumped that fluid through the wall around it.
Sitting in the middle of the orb was the Spear of Achilles.
"Your Majesty...?"
"Yes?" she asked, looking up from her service from the drone. She remembered from her previous existence that copulation often helped to relieve stress, so she decided to see if it would help her frustration with finding Lara Croft. Although enjoyable, the activity didn't relieve her the way she remembered. Yet another sacrifice made in the name of Progress.
"I have been unable to locate the target, but all other processes seem to be in order."
The Hive-Mother shifted position. "There have been no variations at all?"
"None, except for the additional security at the Birthing Chamber."
"...additional security?"
"Why, yes." The reporting humanoid cockroach looked back down at her display. "One of the Soldiers from the battle with the target reported to the Birthing Chamber."
The Hive-Mother sat up, all interest in copulation with the drone forgotten. "And you didn't tell me about this first?"
"I assumed you had sent the Soldier in response to Lara's disappearance, to dissuade her from..."
The Hive-Mother screeched as she reached out and took hold of the roach's skull, squashing it like a styrofoam cup, then ripped open the roach's carapace, spilling its organs all over the floor. The floor itself began to absorb the organic material as the Hive-Mother stood up quickly. "Send the Mantids to the Birthing Chamber immediately! Tell them to kill every living thing in that room not currently undergoing transformation! DO IT NOW!!"
Lara took a closer look at the tubes that led from the bulbous organ that held the Spear to the semi-circular wall. Particles of the rust on the Spear were being circulated around the creatures taking shape, adhering to the flesh and the claws of the monsters within the pods. The creatures stirred, twitched as the rust was absorbed into their bodies. Some of them were shrinking, obviously not accepting the compounds into their bodies, but the other ones seemed to thrive and grow larger as a result of the treatment. Looks like some sort of hardiness test, to see which breeds can handle the toxic compounds and which can not. But if they've got the Spear, why would they be testing to see what breeds could resist the toxin?
Her eyes went wide as she realized that the rust from the Spar was actually being absorbed into the molecular makeup of the creatures inside. Lara suddenly comprehended.
The toxins were being absorbed into the creatures so they could be used as weapons...poisoned weapons with no antidote.
Lara's eyes found their way to one particularly large pod. She gasped as she realized that inside the pod was a young woman, barely out of her teens, heart-stoppingly beautiful...but only from the waist up. From the waist down, a monstrous wasp queen's body twitched as the transformation continued, vestigal wings growing, insectile legs and a stinger the size of a butcher knife. The woman inside turned and looked at Lara, and the adventuress realized that whatever was happening, the ones being changed were aware of what was around them, aware of what they were becoming. The woman in the pod reached out to Lara, her fingertips pressed against the inner wall of the translucent pod, her mouth moving. Lara's blood turned cold as she read the young girl's lips:
"Please...kill me..."
The mantids, women now armed (literally!) with forearm pincers and wide heads with multi-faceted eyes, moved quickly towards the Birthing Chamber, the most sacred of all rooms in the Hive. They had no idea how long their enemy had lingered in the most revered of places, and the thought of that room defiled made them angrier than usual. They barged into the room, heading for the rear to check on the status of the Hive-Mother's great experiment.
The leader of the troop stopped as her fears were realized. The Spear of Achilles was gone! Worse yet, some of the pods had been punctured with some sort of instrument and the precious nutrient fluid that assisted the Change was spurting out all over the floor. The leader rushed over to the pod of the upcoming Queen, attempting to seal the hole as the others tried to do the same to the other pods.
As the leader labored to patch the hole, she saw that the Queen was holding something close to her body as if cradling a doll. The mantid looked closer. The Queen turned her body as best she could to keep the mantid from seeing it. Finally, the Queen-to-be turned and looked at the mantid with a smile.
"What are you holding?" the mantid asked hurriedly, fearful that Lara might have poisoned the Queen. "Show me!"
The young woman in the pod smiled and held out the object, a small, circular device with a metal stick poking out of it, two buttons and two lights, one red, one green. One of the buttons was pressed down, the one with the word ARM. The red light was on and blinking.
The mantid leader looked up at the girl, who had closed her eyes and bore a smile of unparalleled serenity. "Freedom," the girl mouthed and everything went bright for a split-second, then everlasting darkness.
Lara had barely managed to get out of the room in time as the mantids had passed under her. Good thing their new eyes still conform to human norms, or I'd have been a sitting...
She turned the corner and pressed her back against one of the other walls as the walls, ceiling and floor shook with the blast. After a moment, she looked around the corner to the door she had recently bolted through. Little streams of water were spraying through the cracks in the door.
That's not going to hold for long. Lara sprinted off down the hallway, hoping she'd chosen the right direction.
The Hive-Mother's rage was legendary in its ferocity. After she realized that the Birthing Chamber was now so much fish food, she had lashed out against the ones watching the monitors in the room, slaying them all to an insect. Not even the drone she had been playing with had been safe; she'd literally bitten his head off!
She called for replacements, who simply pushed the corpses out of the way and took their places. "FIND LARA CROFT!!" she screamed shrilly. "Send out every Warrior in the base! Command them to sting anything that moves in the hallways!"
"But, Hive-Mother, what about the workers in the hallways?"
The Hive-Mother turned to the fly drone who'd spoken. "We can always get more! Give the order! I want her body prepared for dinner, but make sure she isn't killed. I want her alive when I devour her. GO!"
Lara stopped outside another door, one that had very little traffic in and out of it. Let us hope this is a storage room for something not too particularly foul...
She entered the room and suddenly realized that she was not being very lucky today.
Inside the room were several containers filled with what appeared to be large glass slides. The containers were all linked together with wires and resinous tendons carrying electrical power and fluids of different shades to and from the containers. If I didn't know better, I'd say these looked like servers, Lara thought. She moved to one of the open panels an looked inside, seeing the edges of several different glass slides. What in the world...?
She drew one out and held it up to the light. What she saw made her stomach do flip-flops in her belly.
The slide as made up of two clear panels with a section of human brain matter, neatly sliced, sandwiched between the panels. Trails of synapse ganglions connected the brain section to the outside of the slide. Dear God in Heaven, these creatures are using the brains of people as computer hardware! What a pack of soulless monsters!
A screen to her right flashed and she turned quickly, putting the plate back into the "mainframe." It glowed, then letters began to form on the screen.
WHO ARE YOU?
"The better question might be, 'who are you?'" she mused aloud. Before she could say another word, the screen began to fill up with words...names. Lara watched in growing horror as the names became so numerous, they began to overlap each other. Finally, the screen cleared, leaving only one phrase:
MARK 5:9
"'So Jesus asked, "What is your name?" And the man replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many."'" Lara quoted from the Bible. "Is...is there anything I can do to help you?"
DO YOU INTEND TO DESTROY THIS PLACE?
"If I can."
PROMISE US YOU WILL DESTROY THIS PLACE UTTERLY.
"I will."
THEN WE SHALL HELP YOU. WE CAN CONFUSE THE SECURITY SYSTEMS, BUT IF THE HIVE-MOTHER DISCOVERS WHAT WE ARE DOING, WE WILL BE FORCED TO ENDURE PAIN AS PUNISHMENT. DO NOT FORCE US TO ENDURE ANY MORE PAIN THAN WE ALREADY HAVE.
Lara nodded. "Thank you." Now…now I have to get out of here and manage to survive. I'm running low on ammunition and I need to find an alternate means of getting to the surface. I don't think I'll be able to clear the blast radius in time and if I don't find a pressurized capsule to use, I won't have to worry about the bugs killing me. Unmanaged decompression will do that for me.
She considered her options, a resource she was dangerously low on. There has to be a way out. Figuring it out from the inside is useless, everything looks the same here. I'd need to grow antennae to find my way around and I'm not quite ready to make that drastic a lifestyle alteration. She racked her brain, then realized she was far too vulnerable to be distracted by such trivial matters of finding the means of escape when surviving to make that escape was infinitely more important.
Her eyes widened. She remembered the layout from the maps she'd seen and the view she'd had from the outside.
She knew where to go.
The Hive-Mother was literally buzzing in rage now.
The security systems were malfunctioning, a systematic chain-reaction of errors that made finding Lara Croft more and more difficult. She made a note to herself to find out who was responsible for preparing the bio-computers, apparently bungling a simple job like erasing memories from the brain-boards. I always knew that once enough of the brain-boards were assembled, eventually a consciousness might arise. The fools Thought they could control the flesh with such superficial methods. Idiots. Weaklings and worse. When the Masters come and the Earth is transformed into the paradise intended, the stain of humanity will be erased forever. And it couldn't be completed soon enough to suit me.
She moved out of the control room and flew up through the shaft to the chambers above, her private room. In this place alone did she feel she could reach those she served, surrounded by the artifacts stolen from the old places where they fell, eons ago. Discarded and mis-marked by archaeologists, she and others like her realized what they were.
Conduits to those who ruled worlds millions of years ago, only to remain as under-evolved parasites and lower life-forms. The Masters never told her what the Calamity had been, only that it destroyed the Masters' bodies, their energies left to drift in chaos. They drifted and slowly regained their strength, not out of emotion or passion, but for those needs that made the Masters what they were.
Order…and hunger.
The Masters' thought processes were alien at first, but she came around. They always did. Weak wills always succumbed, or died trying to resist. It was easy to take advantage of the insecurities of others, tell them what they wanted to hear, give them the illusion of granting their requests through the transformations…they never knew what was truly happening until their souls were forced out of their bodies, forced out by the new "owners".
She still remembered her old life clearly. Unlike others, she had embraced the transformation wholeheartedly. Souls were, after all, an overrated commodity.
Power was forever.
She reached out towards one of the artifacts, the one that she had found personally on a dig in Tibet. Its power was strong, and the thought of her using it to turn Lara Croft into a slave to the Masters' will appealed to her greatly, even more than the thought of eating her alive.
"Hive-Mother?"
She sighed and looked to one of the screens. "What is it now?"
"Hive-Mother," began the stag beetle, "you ordered us to inform you of changes in procedure. Does that apply to your own actions?"
"What do you mean?" she asked angrily. "My actions are nothing if not the will of the Masters!"
"Then why have you begun preparations for your departure?"
The Hive-Mother would've blinked if she still had eyelids. "WHAT??"
"The Royal Capsule has begun launch preparations."
"That's impossible! I've done nothing to…CROFT. It has to be her. She's using the Capsule as an escape pod! How did she get to the pod? How did she get past our troops?" She shook her head and dropped the artifact. "Send our troops to that Capsule, but do not try to attack. Surround it and keep her from escaping, and move the patrols to surround the Capsule from the sea to cut off her escape. She is not going anywhere." She smiled as she rose, traveling down the chute. "I have you now, Lara Croft."
The Hive-Mother reached the hallway to the pod and stopped. "Lara Croft!" she yelled.
From inside the Capsule, she heard, "What do you want? I'm busy."
"You have no way to escape, Lara. The Capsule won't take you to safety." The Hive-Mother smiled in pride, finally having outwitted the adventuress.
"Too bad this thing doesn't have a window to the hallway. I wish I could see your face right now."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Easy. I wanted to see the look on your face when your house of cards coming crashing down."
"And how do you propose to do that? Wishful thinking?" She reached for the panel to unlock the door.
"Actually, I was thinking of using plastic explosives. And don't you touch the door, unless you want to go for a swim."
The Hive-Mother stopped. "What are you babbling about?"
"I've placed explosives all over the base, placed around the junctures of the sections of your little Atlantis. I press this little button, and you get to find out how the Titanic feels."
The Hive-Mother stopped. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't do all this to kill yourself in the bargain."
"I've seen you for what you are. I've seen your little Chamber of Horrors."
"Isn't it beautiful? Soon, the grime and filth you've created will be swept away and the human race will be replaced by a superior life-form, a superior race. Just like the dinosaurs."
"Oh, really? And what will happen if a life-form superior to yours comes along? You going to gracefully give up your place in the food-chain?"
"We might…if it weren't for the fact that the Masters are the ultimate life-form. There is no form of life higher." The Hive-Mother reached for the door panel once again.
"Before you go and do something you'll regret, I call your attention to the wireless video camera just over your head." The Hive-Mother looked up and saw the camera, scowling. "Back up and take your little Bug Scout army with you. A nice, respectable distance, thank you."
The Hive-Mother scowled, but complied. She turned to one of the drones and instructed him to notify the patrols to find the explosives and remove them. "And what do you hope to get out of all this?"
"Freedom. You let me go and I won't force you to need to evolve into fish."
"You can not escape. I will not let you."
"Oh, I'm sure you will. After all, you cannot serve your precious Masters when you're dead."
The Hive-Mother hissed at her, "I won't let you escape!"
"Then I guess I'm going to either die or be force-changed into one of those things in the hallway. Better I die first, and if I'm going to go, I'm going to bloody well take you with me!!"
"WAIT!"
"Yes?" Lara said sweetly.
"Very well…maybe we can come to some sort of deal."
"Good bug. Now, just to prove to you that I'm not bluffing, I'm going to make my point clear. Remember those little submersibles you use for emergencies?" There was a pause. "I'm afraid what's going to happen is a real emergency."
The Hive-Mother's eyes turned from black to a light gray as she felt a shuddering in the base. She turned to one of the drones. "What's happening?"
"The sub dock has been destroyed! There's nothing but debris and derelict subs rising to the surface."
"BITCH!!"
"Now now, name calling is so beneath a superior life-form, Hive-Mother. Sure you don't need to re-think that classification?"
"Shut up, Lara!"
"And so easy to irritate. So much for self-control and calm order. Maybe what you are, what the Masters are, is just another bunch of ravening beasts who like order only until they get what they want…and then it's open season." Lara paused. "You know, Hive-Mother, you really want to see what defines a higher life-form?"
Just a little longer…need to keep her talking until all the explosives are found! "Humor me, Ms. Croft."
"Creativity."
"Creativity incites chaos. Chaos denies order. Order must be maintained."
"If that's true, then all you need to do is open Door #1 and find out what you've won. Go ahead. I want to see the look on your face…"
The Hive-Mother smiled and opened the door. The smile vanished as she saw that the only occupant of the Capsule was a radio with duct tape around the TALK button. Lara's voice came through loud and clear. "…but I'm afraid this radio isn't equipped with a camera, expensive as it is."
"WHAT…WHERE…?"
Lara's voice came through the radio as if she was right there. "Well, as much as I would love to continue this interesting conversation, I'm afraid I've got to go. But let me leave you with two little words that mean so much."
The Hive-Mother didn't answer as the implications of what Lara was saying began to dawn on her. Her mouth hung open as she knew that the next two words she would hear would be the last she'd ever hear.
"Bomb voyage."
David awoke, moaning slightly as he stirred in pain. "Uhhhhhh…"
"Dave?"
David opened his eyes to see Lara sitting next to his bed, dressed in a surprisingly conservative dress. "Huh? Lara?"
"Take it easy, Dave. You're going to be fine, but you'll be on the mend for a bit longer." She smiled as she bent over him. "But if you think I'm going to dress up like a nurse, I'm afraid that it's not going to happen. Terribly sorry."
"But…Lara, what happened? Where were you?"
"It's a long story, Dave."
"Well, I think I'm going to be here for a while, so spill."
"All right, since you asked so nicely for a bedtime story. I warn you, though, it isn't Cinderella." Lara pulled up a chair and sat down, telling him about the trip to Greece, finding the antidote formula, finding out about the insectoids.
"Bugs? Aw, jeez, as if my life wasn't interesting enough."
Lara continued on about being betrayed, finding the undersea base, the technologies within and the use of human beings as raw material.
"Geez, sounds like a real horrorshow. Hey, wait, if they could track you through the base through your smell, how did you manage to evade them after you blew their little incubators?"
"I was hoping you'd ask," Lara said, more than a little proud of her idea. "The base was originally built as a harvester, to farm the resources of the sea floor. Before it was completed, the industrialist involved became a host for one of those things. He retrofitted it for experimentation, away from prying eyes, and since all their technology seems to be organic, they could dispose of the experiments without a chance of it being discovered."
"I'm assuming there's a point to this architectural history lesson."
"Well, when I scouted out the area before entering, I found that there was some part of the base that had been decommissioned, but not destroyed. There was a series of heat exchangers that ran throughout the base to make sure the people inside the base didn't succumb to the freezing temperatures of the deep water. Since the bugs apparently wanted to test how hardy their experiments were, they shut off the boilers. Also, since they used their own secretions to redecorate their new base…"
"Please tell me you took a long, hot shower before coming here."
"…they never bothered to reactivate the heaters or alter their construction. So I dug away at one of the conduits, got inside and made it to the Hive-Mother's personal garage. Once there, I booby-trapped the submersible, hustled back to the exploratory submersibles and crossed a few wires, making them think I was in one place when I was actually in another. Once I had their attention, I escaped in one of the submersibles, and blew the dock a few moments later, letting them think I was cutting off their avenues of escape when I was actually making good mine. After I was a good pace away, I set off the rest of the explosives. The water pressure did the rest. The base collapsed like a house of cards."
"A crushing defeat, one might say?" David smiled weakly.
"Ugh, and I thought only your body was sick. Now I know you have an infected sense of humor." Lara shook her head. "To make a long story even longer, I made the salve I needed to save your sorry American arse, came here, and the rest is, well, history." She leaned back and draped an arm over the back of the chair. "And I am certifiably exhausted."
"I'll agree with the certifiable part. How long did it take to make the salve?"
"Not long. The formula was simple, but it was the shopping that took the time." She took out a file. "Had a couple of friends take a little metallurgical test or two…the metal of the spearhead conforms to no earthly metal. Light as aluminum, but stronger than steel. The big mystery, of course, was how the techniques of forgery in that time period could've possibly shaped that metal."
"Meteorite?"
"Either that, or the goddess Thetis pulled a string or two."
"Achilles' mom, right?"
"Right. You know, you're starting to get good at this. Somebody might mistake you for a historian someday." Lara smiled.
"Oh, ha ha. So you're going to give the Spear back to the museum?"
"Not this time. According to my official report, the Spear was lost when the base became an aluminum can in the hands of an overzealous weightlifter. It belongs to the other 'lost' artifacts in my vault, far away from prying eyes and vengeful minds."
"Won't the guys who did the tests tell?"
"No. You can be sure of that." Lara smiled. "I can be very persuasive."
"Do tell." David winced as he tried to sit up. "Did you talk to the doc about how soon I can get out of here?"
"Tomorrow. I promise."
"Alright. Can't wait."
"David Connors?"
"Mmmmmmm….what?" David opened his eyes, looking around blearily. "What time is it?"
"It's sometime around two a.m. and I wish to talk with you."
David wiped his eyes with one hand, looking up through the dim light at the matronly woman standing over his bed. "Who are you?"
"A mother. May we speak?"
David groaned slightly. "Sure, sit down." As the woman sat next to the bed, David sat up slightly. Must be some good drugs, I barely feel any pain at all. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I came to apologize."
"For what?"
"My boy…he left his toys around, people pick them up and do bad things with them. It's not his fault, he…forgets things. He's a good man, but he's had his troubles."
Great, someone must have left the door open to the mental ward. "I don't quite understand."
"One of his toys, his favorite, actually…it hurt you, and I am sad to say that I gave it to him."
"Lady, I'm not quite sure if you know what happened. I was stuck with a sharp weapon, and I don't think…"
"Tut tut, David Connors. It was the spear I gave him."
David stopped. "What spear?"
"Come now, David. I gave it to him. You think I wouldn't recognize its handiwork?"
"…and that would make you the goddess Thetis."
She smiled. "I'm flattered that you'd remember the name of an old river spirit."
"Uhm, well…I was kind of expecting…well, you know…"
"Ancient Greek clothing? Not as flattering as this lovely dress, I must say." She smiled. "Now, about the Spear…"
"It's in a safe place."
"Well, I cannot seem to find it, but I am curious as to how you did it."
"Sorry, can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Personal reasons."
"And those reasons are…?"
"Personal."
Thetis looked at David carefully, with that critical eye patented by mothers everywhere. "David…"
"Your son has passed on. So he left his toys here. Trust me, I have knowledge of the safest toybox on the planet. Besides, if you know me as well as you seem to, you know that I'll make sure it doesn't get misused."
Thetis looked at David critically. "And if you find you cannot keep it safe?"
"Then you'll be the first person I dial."
Thetis stood up. "I'll hold you to it, David Connors. But if you disappoint me, rest assured, you've heard about the fury of a woman scorned…but that pales in comparison to a mother scorned."
"I'll take your word for it. Never had a mother."
"That must have come as something as a shock to your father."
David sobered. "Didn't have one of those either."
"You mean you appeared full grown? And they say there are no miracles anymore."
"Look, I'm an orphan. I don't have parents, I just had new foster parents every so often."
"Really? That's odd. From what I understand, they're rather proud of how you've turned out."
David stared at her. "That…is SO not funny."
"David, I'm afraid that certain information about yourself has been kept from you for a long time. I cannot say why, but you were given away for your own safety. No, don't get up. Just rest. You'll need to."
"You're talking in riddles, lady. And what I do understand from your words, I don't like."
"Life is inherently unfair, David. Anyone who tells you different is trying to relieve you of hard-won money." She stood up. "I have to go. I'm deeply concerned about a group of developers who want to dump poison into my waters."
"Need a hand?"
She smiled. "Don't worry. I'm just going to handle it myself. You'd be surprised how often people drown in their own bathtubs in these modern times." She walked to the door, opened it, then turned to look at David. "You have a great destiny ahead of you, David Connors. Keep your eyes open in the days ahead, and don't give up on Lara. She needs you more than you realize, and you need her."
"Now I know you're blowing smoke. She's trying to dodge me."
"Do you love her, David?"
David didn't hesitate a second. "With all my heart."
"Then perhaps you should live up to the American ideal and not give up. Just a thought." Thetis left and closed the door behind her.
David looked at the door for a long time.
TO BE CONTINUED…