The Dark Between The Stars

TWENTY-FIVE
TOM ROM

Heading toward the empty Klikiss city and into the gathering darkness, Tom Rom went far from the camp and lay on the ground, staring up at the stars. He felt safe in the open aloneness, wearing the armor of his own confidence.

The sketchy records he had found about Eljiid made no mention of dangerous nocturnal predators. He wasn’t worried. Tom Rom was never worried. He had taught himself to sleep lightly, and he always awoke feeling rested, and ready.

When the dawn washed over him, he rose to see the distorted alien towers that looked like pockmarked termite mounds. The nearby Klikiss city was empty, but he knew many insectoid bodies remained inside, preserved where they had fallen after the end of the last swarming. He had his autopsy kit and specimen containers. He would find what Zoe Alakis wanted.

During his trip to the transportal nexus at Rheindic Co, Tom Rom had studied all public information, as well as three classified reports, on Klikiss physiology. Dissections of the various Klikiss castes had already been done; one report was so detailed it was called An Atlas of the Klikiss Body, but the work was merely documentary—images, measurements, some limited chemical analysis—without any insightful conclusions. From the images, he had identified the “royal jelly” gland that Zoe wanted to investigate. None of the other scientists had even postulated what purpose the organ might have served.

In preparation for this mission, Tom Rom had also worked his way through the complex and confusing tome, The Song of the Breedex, which gave insight into the culture and history of the violent insect race, but he found it irrelevant. He only wanted to harvest what Zoe needed.

Brushing himself off from where he had slept, he took a sip of tepid water from his pack, ate a flavorless nutrient bar, and shouldered the pack. He had brought cutting tools, gloves, and a sterile mask—just in case. If he worked efficiently, he could be gone from Eljiid in a day. Zoe would be waiting for him.

As dawn brightened, he made his way through long shadows into the alien metropolis and searched for one of the ground-level doors. There were numerous openings at other levels, out of reach. He left spots of marker paint along his path, not wanting to get lost inside the hive labyrinth. The structures seemed similar to other Klikiss ruins, and Tom Rom was confident he could find his way. Locating a door, he entered.

The walls were made of a resinous cement, covered with spidery writing and complex symbols that extended out in shattered angles—Klikiss math and scientific principles. The powdery air smelled stale. This environment would have mummified the fallen insect bodies, preserving organs inside their exoskeletons.

All he needed was to find some cadavers.

He wandered through the empty insect city, following the curved tunnels, climbing up ramps. Finally, in a large open chamber, he found twenty alien bodies. The Klikiss drones looked like three-meter-high cockroaches with plated abdomens, multiple-segmented arms, flat heads. Each Klikiss caste had the soft thorax organ that would be filled with the glandular royal jelly.

Alone in the chamber, Tom Rom set up his lights, unrolled his pack, put on his gloves and mask, then withdrew his tools: a wide-bladed knife, a narrow hatchet if the exoskeleton proved too tough, jawlike spreaders, and tongs. Tipping up the head of the first drone, he cracked open the thorax. From the dissection records, he knew approximately where to find the gland. With gloved fingers, he dug around in the soft gelatinous tissue, but he was too clumsy with the first specimen. He ruptured the gland, mangling the job so that the thick, nearly hardened jelly oozed out. Contaminated, useless for Zoe’s purposes.

But there were other bodies to choose from. He exercised greater care with the next cadaver. After cracking the shell with the point of his knife, he used the spreader to open it wider. Using the tongs to move tissue aside, he exposed the gland at the base of the creature’s throat.

It was spongy and misshapen, gray-green in color, a swollen pustule filled with half-crystallized liquid. Taking care not to puncture the membrane, he snipped out the gland—intact—and placed it in a specimen container.

Technically, that was all Zoe needed to run her tests, but since there were numerous other Klikiss bodies lying here for the taking, he decided to increase his sample size. This would give the Pergamus researchers much more to work with. Also, if the royal jelly did prove to have exceptional health properties, Zoe would want to have more of it.

Practiced now, he cracked open another thorax, extracted the gland, and added it to the specimen container. He discarded the mangled Klikiss body and worked on the next one, and the next. In less than an hour, he filled three large specimen containers, sealed each one, and sterilized the exteriors. His gloves and sleeves were covered with ichor and slime, but his breathing mask remained seated in place. Only two more drone bodies left to harvest.

From the chamber doorway, he heard a loud, disgusted gasp. The disheveled-looking Mr. Bolam stood wide-eyed, as if ready to vomit. “What the hell are you doing? Those are specimens, protected by a Confederation Act. You can’t just—”

Tom Rom carefully stripped off his gloves and tossed them aside. He applied a sterilizing gel to his skin, just in case he had been exposed to any fluids. “Do you think the Klikiss care? Or are you one of those who believes the bodies are still alive and just hibernating?” All around him, the harvested Klikiss bodies lay sprawled in oozing pools. Even through his mask he could smell an odd, putrid odor that wafted up from the cracked insect shells.

“I don’t give a shit about the bodies—but you’re not allowed to do that.” Bolam looked indignant.

As Tom Rom talked, he continued packing away the specimen containers. “It’s important work.”

“But what is it for? Why would you do this?” The man narrowed his eyes, lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Is there some profitable substance in the bodies?”

“My employer has reason to believe that there may be some medical potential in the royal jelly excreted by these Klikiss glands.” Tom Rom sealed his pack, then opened the kit to remove a needle-tipped thimble. “It could be a miracle cure, could be a drug. We’re going to do a thorough analysis. That’s why we needed the samples.”

He rummaged in his kit and found a vial filled with clear liquid. He removed the cap and dripped some of the fluid onto the end of the thimble, making sure the fluid was evenly distributed.

Bolam was incensed at being treated as irrelevant. “I can’t just let you walk in here and do this. I’ll need to file a report. If you suspect there’s some medical use to the Klikiss bodies, then we’ll set up a research team, investigate it thoroughly.”

Tom Rom shouldered his pack, adjusted the straps, and stepped up to the still-babbling Bolam. With a flick of his finger, he scratched the man on the neck.

Bolam recoiled. “What the hell?” He swatted at Tom Rom, who easily dodged the man’s flailing hands. “I’m going to have you held until we can bring in the authorities.”

Finishing his business, Tom Rom removed the thimble from his finger and slid it back into a pocket in his kit. He paid no attention to Bolam, who continued to grow more outraged by his attitude.

The camp administrator touched the scratch on his neck, and his face began to swell. His mouth opened and closed like a dying fish’s. He choked, his eyes bulged. White boils appeared on his skin. He wheezed, but could not draw a breath. His hands swelled, and more boils appeared along his arms. He began to drool down the side of his chin, which Tom Rom found disgusting.

“My employer wants this matter kept confidential,” he explained, though it served no purpose. “If the royal jelly is successful, she intends to obtain a large stockpile without competitors knowing about it. If the glands prove to have no use, then it doesn’t matter.”

Bolam dropped to the floor, writhing. He took longer to die than Tom Rom expected, but the fatal allergic reaction could not be measured precisely. Removing a small antigrav handle from his pack, he strapped it to the body, then lifted the dead man like a lightweight package and carried him out through the Klikiss corridors.

He encountered none of the camp’s other archaeological teams as he carried Bolam out, found a thicket of the tortured Whistler cacti. Several species of Eljiid cacti were known to have alkaloid poison, to which some people were prone to extreme reactions. He dumped Bolam’s body next to the thicket, where the long spines left more scratches on his skin.

Finished with his work, Tom Rom made his way back to the camp. As he grew closer, he feigned a panicked expression. “I found Mr. Bolam by the Whistler thicket outside the ruins!” he cried. “I think he’s dead—looks like anaphylactic shock. It was horrible.”

Several researchers gaped at him from their tents and tables, before grabbing first-aid kits. Tom Rom called as they rushed off, “Maybe you can save him, I don’t know.”

He returned to the Klikiss transportal and stood before the tall stone window. Its flat opaque surface showed nothing until he activated the coordinate tile for the Rheindic Co nexus. The solid surface shimmered and formed a doorway, and he stepped through.

Another successful mission. Zoe Alakis would be pleased.