Confrontation (The Seamus Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  “I agree. If you need any help driving the salvage team, let me know. I support this completely. Perhaps we can talk offline about the rescue team?” Mike says, trying to salvage some leadership power.

  Mom’s wheels are almost visibly turning. She’s trying to figure out a way to box out the McMurdo guys from the rescue team. With Dad and Liam on rescue and Henry on defense, she could have used McMurdo and Ames to her advantage. When I made the rescue team negotiable, it opened the door for Mike to inject himself and leverage the McMurdo–Ames conflict.

  We are here because of our inability to resolve conflict. The sore loser virus was released in retaliation to a biological attack. One human ideology was so frustrated with another that they decided killing was the best solution. The response was complete and total annihilation.

  It wasn’t a war like any that humans had seen, but it was most definitely a war. Now we are bringing that war-like thinking to a new planet.

  Consuming resources and leaving only waste is not the only pollution we have introduced to this plant. We’ve brought hatred and vengeance with us. Even in the face of discovering a new species, we have conflict amongst ourselves.

  Perhaps humans are not evolved enough to be exploring the stars. Maybe technology was never the limiting factor for us to discover life beyond Earth. If an alien race did observe humans, they may have been shocked to see us killing our own species over differences of opinion.

  Figuring out how to resolve our internal conflict peacefully is as important as learning how to engage with the natives of this planet. If the new generation of children grows up around conflict that turns violent, we have done nothing but delay the extinction of our species.

  What I need to do is work with mom to figure out a bigger picture. I don’t just need a goal for myself, I need to find a goal for humanity. World peace comes to mind quickly, but only because it has been the butt of so many jokes. Peace is actually the result of something else.

  I’m amazed that we could live here ignorantly for so long. The goal for humanity should have been an ongoing discussion. Can you imagine how we would be dealing with this if we had spent just ten minutes of each meal discussing how we make this world better than the last one?

  Chapter 11

  Moving the containment field was a bigger deal than I expected. Floating it was a downright ridiculous idea. The floor of the raft is not rigid and the reactor is a little top heavy. There are also a few sharp and pointy edges on the reactor, and those don’t mix well with an inflatable raft.

  It’s not really worth the brain cycles but more than once I have marveled at how well we have taken care of the rafts. I remember that the first time we paddled away from the C-5 toward the shore I was worried that they would not make it the whole way.

  After we unloaded the last of the supplies from the C-5, I assumed the rafts would be neglected and fall into a state of disrepair. Leisurely floating on an alien lake was not something we had time for.

  I guess that while I was working on setting up the containment field and the power reactor, Dad and the others took care of the rafts. It was smart and helpful, the kinds of thing that comes with age and experience.

  Injecting myself in the rescue mission has hurt my mom in more ways than I thought. Not only has she lost her say in who makes up the team, she has lost a bargaining chip. If I had left the team at Dad and Liam, she could have offered a spot to a specific person from McMurdo in exchange for agreeing to something else.

  Now we are sitting down for dinner and I can see her mulling options. She could be thinking about what to offer in exchange for getting her person on the rescue team. Somehow I’ve become an island. Will she make me an offer so that I stay, or will she sacrifice something to the others so that dad can go with me?

  “We should short-shift the rest cycle so we can get to work on salvage. Luke could be bleeding or have other injuries. Sonjia may be hurt as well,” Mike says, pressing for speed.

  There is an odd and delicate balance of power between Mike and my mom. It’s like a Democrat and a Republican sharing the office of president. Either one alone couldn’t get all the people to agree on a task, but together they have us all moving in the same direction. All of it is made tenser by how close to the chest they each keep their cards.

  “I don’t disagree. I’ve asked Liam to lead the salvage project. My hope is that Seamus will assist him.” Mom does not even look to me for my reaction.

  “You keep saying there is no Ames vs. McMurdo, but none of your teams are joined,” Mike snarks.

  “Let me explain my logic. Liam has been to the submerged craft and is one of our best swimmers. He is also in great shape and can probably work underwater longer than any one else. Seamus understands exactly what we need to salvage to get another portable reactor assembled. Together this represents our most direct line between here and rescuing Luke and Sonjia.” Mom is curt but complete.

  Perhaps I should speak up and add a comment on how efficiency improves safety. With my brother’s life on the line, I don’t want some yahoo grabbing an extra seat cushion. Though anyone who was qualified to go to McMurdo is not a yahoo.

  Mike holds firm. “The space plane needs to be picked clean. There can be priorities, but we need to finish the job. Immediate access to all of our resources is important to planning. Always having one more thing we could use from the submerged space plane makes it feel like you are controlling resources and therefore people.”

  “I am not controlling resources. We have made decisions based on available facts. Facts change and decisions are revisited,” Mom says defensively.

  “We understand that you are not controlling resources. It feels like it at times, though. Agreeing to a full salvage will go a long way,” Mike says, softening a little.

  “Why don’t I join the boys?” Henry speaks up.

  Out of the corner of my eye I catch Dad give a subtle nod. Henry is technically McMurdo, but Dad trusts him with his sons’ lives. I wonder if the others see things the same way.

  Mom and Mike stare one another down. If mom agrees first it will seem like an obvious plant. If Mike agrees first, the others in his group will think he’s clueless.

  After a minute, Henry speaks again.

  “I was on the water polo team at the Naval Academy. I’m a little out of swimming shape, but I’m still comfortable in the water, and under it,” he says.

  My mother holds her hands up, palms to the sky, and shrugs her shoulders. It works for her, but she doesn’t want to force the issue.

  “Fine,” Mike says. He lays his final card. “David will row them out and stay on-site as the dry safety. Seamus can stay behind.”

  “Sounds fair.” Mom does not look or sound defeated.

  With David and Henry supporting Liam at the space plane, I have more work to do. The fruits and vegetables from the garden won’t carry themselves back to the central cabin.

  It used to be that I thought the carrying of food was mindless. Now I know that sorting baskets of produce is the worst. Some food ripens faster than others. Certain fruits can cause other produce to ripen faster than it would alone. We have to keep everything separate and organized so that none of it goes bad in storage.

  The cold storage cave I developed is a huge help. It didn’t take as long to build as I thought it would, but it’s also not as elegant as I had planned. The pipes don’t run all the way to the space plane, but they go far enough out into the lake that the water flowing through them is cold. There are also not as many as I wanted but there are enough to lower the temperature by almost twenty degrees. By chilling the room with the pipes, we’ve extended the length of time we can store ripe foods by several weeks. When we first started harvesting, it was days. I just wish that my sweatshirt wasn’t so ratty; it’s cold in the cave.

  “Henry and I usually sort in the cabin and then bring the bins into the cave. That way we don’t freeze,” Dad says from the door.

  Of course they do. If I had spent even thi
rty seconds thinking about the task I would have come up with that. Maybe it’s not as mindless as I thought.

  “Step outside and warm up in the sun,” Dad says when I get into the cabin with my unsorted bin of food.

  I place my bin on the table and head outside. If I linger out here, maybe dad will sort the food for me. That’s a pretty immature thought; I wonder if dad ever has those kinds of thoughts.

  The warm sun feels great, but the sameness gets to me. There are not seasons and almost no rain. A microclimate has developed underneath the containment field, but there is still too much sunlight for it to generate clouds or rain. Water comes from the lake and that’s it. With more time, I could wonder about the sources of the river where the other C-5 crashed, but that has been a back-burner issue for over a year.

  A noise on the path interrupts my thoughts. I look up to see Jake spin around and look behind him. There is nothing to see; from my vantage point I have a better view down the path than he does.

  Jake turns back to me for a second and then resumes walking. After only a few steps, everything starts to happen too fast.

  The creature that grabs Jake is hard to describe. It has four legs and a broad shield covering its back. A horse with a turtle shell is the first thing that I think of. There’s more. The shell slopes from what I assume is the creature’s head to what I will call its rump. There is a distinct torso with two strong arms coming out, one on each side.

  Minotaur. A half-man half-horse creature from mythology. It’s the closest description humans could have for this being, but it’s not accurate.

  The creature is green and there are moss-like patches scattered over its back. The head does not look capable of significant rotation on its own. I believe the creature needs to move its body to change its view.

  Without knowing why, I don’t feel like the creature is hostile. There is a sense of curiosity in the air. Whatever it is holds Jake firmly and appears to be inspecting him, though not gently.

  “Dad!” I whisper as loud as feels safe.

  Jake is now upside down, the creature manipulating his legs independently. It pulls the legs front and back and then out wide until Jake screams in pain. The noise clearly startles the creature, which flips Jake violently and begins inspecting his head and face.

  With Jake’s scream my dad comes running. He skids to a stop next to me and stares in awe.

  The pain must have jolted Jake out of his shock. He begins pleading with the creature.

  “Please put me down. My wife just had a baby and they are going to need me. I promise we won’t bother you. Please don’t hurt me.” There are tears running down his face.

  I’m frozen. If I call out to Jake or the creature, what would happen? I’m not ready to sacrifice myself for him, but I don’t know how else to save him.

  No one heard the creature come into the village. They are quiet. From the body structure and the way it is handling Jake, they are powerful too. Defeating them would be difficult, though it’s unclear what their intellectual capabilities are.

  Jake is now sobbing “please, please, please” and the creature is getting closer and closer to his face.

  “What do we do?” I ask my Dad.

  “I don’t want to lead it deeper into the village or close to the garden. But I doubt we could get past it even if we ran. Maybe I should--” Dad says but is cut off.

  The creature sticks a large finger into Jake’s mouth and the noises stop. With a simple flex, Jake’s lower jaw is ripped from his face and falls to the ground. There is blood everywhere.

  Jake’s body clenches and wriggles fiercely. After several seconds, Jake loses control of his movements and his body twitches slowly.

  After another smooth quick motion, the creatures’ finger moves up to the roof of Jake’s mouth. I see Jake’s eyes go wide and I can only imagine his pain and fear. A low gurgling noise is coming from Jake’s throat, but he does not seem to be in control of it.

  In a flash, the creature’s finger presses up and through the roof of Jake’s mouth. The body goes limp and the creature’s fingertip appears in a newly formed hole in the back of Jake’s skull.

  Jake is dead.

  The creature seems disappointed. It pulls its finger from Jake’s skull and slowly lowers the body to the ground. The act seems gentle and almost kind.

  Once Jake’s body is on the ground, the creature nudges it with one of its front legs. It bends approximately halfway between its arms and front legs and places a finger in the blood pooling on the ground.

  I cannot read an expression on the creature’s face but its movements have slowed down. The finger dripping with blood lifts into the air and a drop comes off.

  The creature gently takes the disembodied jaw off the ground. With great dexterity it manipulates the jaw and tries to return it to Jake’s disfigured face. When the jaw does not stay, the creature drops its head in what I interpret as a form of sadness.

  Dropping to both front knees, the creature turns its chest toward us and lowers its head toward Jake’s lifeless body. With no knowledge of the creature’s anatomy, I have to assume it has ears in a location similar to our own. My guess is that it is listening for something from Jake.

  Our eyes meet and I detect fear. The fear quickly turns to surprise. The creature does not move.

  My hands are clasped in front of my body and rest on my stomach. I take a small but deliberate step forward and maintain eye contact. No big movements; like approaching a wild animal.

  “Hello, I’m Seamus,” I say softly, making my first contact with an alien creature.

  Chapter 12

  After many tense minutes, the creature got to its feet and backed out of the village. Dad asked if I thought we should pursue it. Without much thought, I said no.

  Now I am struggling to convince the others that the creature was not violent. Jake’s body looks like it was not just beaten, but tortured. Admitting that I stood by and watched it happen has not increased any of my already low credibility.

  Grace is still not back from walking supplies over to the cave. Mom and Dad agreed that it should be me who tells her what happened to Jake.

  My sister, the soon-to-be mother, is now a widow and will be a single mother. We live as a tight-knit group, but as I said to Liam shortly after we arrived, there aren’t that many fish in the sea, so to speak. If you find someone who works for you, be good to them.

  Jake was definitely good to Grace. They were normal. They had a home and were preparing to raise a child. Each of them worked at separate jobs, but at the end of each day they were together. I realize now how jealous I am of what they had. Now it’s gone.

  Dad took responsibility for moving and cleaning Jake’s body. He brought it down by the garden and I think he will want to bury it there. Using human remains feels disrespectful, but intellectually it is the right thing to do. The body will decompose and add nutrients to the soil.

  Or will it? Decomposition occurred due to microorganisms on Earth. On Locus those microorganisms may not be present.

  The analytical part of my mind takes over. I know that I am just hiding my emotions but I’m okay with that. Besides, if I’m honest, my emotions are wrong.

  Watching the creature kill Jake left me confused and scared. Confused because the creature did not seem angry or aggressive. Jake’s death feels like an accident. Scared because I don’t want to die. Not only do I not want to die, I don’t want to get hurt.

  My third emotion is sad. I’m sad for my sister, who is going to come home from contributing to the community only to find her husband dead. Grace did nothing to cause the death and there was nothing she could do to prevent it, but I know her. She is going to be upset that she wasn’t here.

  My feelings about Jake are somewhere beyond those other emotions. He is the one who died; why don’t I feel bad for him? Jake is the one who lost his life, yet my thoughts and feelings are with those who are still alive.

  In an effort to further suppress my emotions, I make
my way to where the creature engaged with Jake. There are clear footprints in the soil, but they are not as deep as I suspected. The creature was large in both height and width. From the looks of these footprints, though, it was not heavy; that is a surprise.

  Following the tracks back a ways, I can see where it came into the village. The ground here is even less compressed, which means that Jake’s weight was a significant contributor to the depth of the prints I first saw.

  The creature came to our village along the trail from the river plane. The spacing between its feet was even and consistent. It was not running or varying its pace along the way.

  I follow the trail all the way to the edge of our containment field. One of my dad’s crude street signs marks the location. On the other side are several muddled footprints. My guess is that the creature stopped here for some reason and investigated. It seems that Luke was right to worry about them recognizing the containment field.

  “Seamus,” Liam calls from behind me.

  I look back to my brother. “There’s a huge alien out there and I’m going to die from a heart attack because of you sneaking up on me.”

  “Right. Do you think it makes sense to be out here alone knowing what that thing did to Jake?” he asks.

  “No. I’m just not sure what to do. Poor Grace,” I say.

  “Yeah. I-”

  Liam stops talking abruptly.

  A blow strikes me in the back and sends me sprawling to the ground. The air has left my lungs and I fight to breathe. A short gulp of air brings with it dust and soil into my body.

  Instinctively I roll to my back and look up. The creature is standing a few feet away from me. Its eyes are clear and they have a look of wonder and indecision in them.

  After several short gasps for breath, I’m able to get my hands up over my head. Dad always told us this stance would expand the lung capacity and help us breathe easier. It worked last time I got the wind knocked out of me and it is already working this time.