A Day for Damnation

TWENTY-FOUR

AND THEN the worm backed away from the window and was gone. There was darkness beyond the window. Where was it? "Don't move," I said.

"I couldn't if I wanted to."

For a moment, there was silence. I wondered if this was the same worm that Duke and I had seen before. I couldn't tell-and it didn't really make much difference, did it? Then, from the side of the chopper next to Lizard, there came a gentle tapping, scrabbling sound.

The worm was still examining the ship.

Lizard's eyes went wide. This was worse than seeing what the creature was doing.

The sound moved down the length of the chopper. Slowly, ever so slowly, the worm tapped and scratched its way toward the hatch. When the scrabbling sounds reached the door of the chopper, they hesitated. It was as if the worm could tell that there was something different about this piece of hull. The examination went on for a long long time. I thought of a rabbit in a cage

"I, uh-want you to know something. .." Lizard said quietly. Our attention was on the noise at the door.

"What's that?" I asked.

It almost sounded like a knock. Or like a dog scratching to get in.

"I meant it, what I said before. About you being kind of cute." Now it was rattling the door handle!

"I know," I said. "Thank you."

Go away, goddammit! There's nobody home!

"No-listen, what I really wanted to tell you-" Lizard's voice was strained, "-I can fuck better than I can fly. You can tell Duke that-if you get the chance......"

The rattle at the door stopped.

I said, "I, uh-wanted to find that out for myself. . . ."

There was silence again. Lizard and I listened painfully. Had the worm given up and gone away?

No. The scrabbling resumed farther back down the hull. Lizard gasped. She blurted quickly, "Me too."

The worm was at the tail of the ship now. I said, "When we get back to Oakland.. ."

She said, "Okay......"

Something went bang. The chopper lurched forward. Lizard yelped. Duke moaned.

And then there was silence.

"It went away ... ?" she whispered.

"Wait," I cautioned.

The silence grew louder.

"Turn on the outside lights," I said. "All of them."

"Is that safe?"

"It knows we're here. There's no reason to hide any more. We might as well see what we're in the middle of."

She leaned forward slowly and touched a button on her console. The landscape beyond the window blazed suddenly bright. The ground glowed pink. The chopper's headlights were still under the dust-the light was reflecting upward through the powder. It created an eerie luminescence, a faerie landscape. A deep furrow led out of the trees, through the pink dunes and directly toward the chopper. The track of the curious worm. Where was it now?

The pink dunes were losing their pristine condition and collapsing into muddy-looking slush that pulsed and throbbed with swarming life. We couldn't identify the smaller creatures; they blurred into a glittering mosaic. Millipedes slithered through them everywhere, feeding like sharks; some of them were as huge as pythons.

But where was the worm?

Lizard switched on the overhead spotlights then-and gasped. Outside, the air was filled with fluttery things. They looked like epileptic moths. They darted back and forth through the light pouring from the chopper. They dipped and dove and picked at the bugs in the powder. And now there were larger things that sailed through the fluttery things. They curled and swooped like silver ribbons. They were bizarre and graceful and beautiful to watch; they rippled and moved in perfect sine waves. Something like a kite darted through them, snatching them out of the air. What kind of creature fed on the kites?

The creatures in the powder were clearer now too. There were nightwalkers the size of terriers. There were things that looked like spiders on stilts. There were pipe cleaner bugs the size of rats. There were pink hairballs with mouths creeping through the dust, humping like inchworms.

Lizard stared in fascination. Almost without thinking, she switched on the outside microphones

Cacophony!

Chirps and whistles! A thousand chittering, cackling, buzzing, warbling voices clamored in at us. The noise was horrendous! Lizard turned the volume down-but that only made the sounds more ominous, not less.

Now, it sounded like chewing.

A million mandibles crunching, a noise like sizzling fat.

The night had brought out the biggest and the worst. The creatures beyond the window were functioning with a single biological imperative carried to its most horrifying extreme: eat as much as you can before you are eaten yourself.

It was hideous. And it was fascinating.

I glanced over at Lizard. She was pale and trembling-but she had the camera up to her eye again. I started climbing toward the back

She yelped, "Hey-where're you going?"

"I've gotta find that worm-" I climbed past Duke.

She followed me back. "What in hell are you thinking?"

"I don't know yet." I was already pulling the weapon-bay open. "Have you got any cold explosives?"

"No-wait a minute. See what kind of rockets they packed with the rocket launcher-" She pointed.

"I found it-" I studied the warning labels.

"You're not going out there?" she said.

"If I have to-"

"That's crazy! You know what's outside-"

"Yeah-and I al'so know how worms like to solve puzzles with bait in 'em. Yeah, this'll do." I pulled out the "peace-pipe" and one pipe-filler, handed it to her to hold, then closed the compartment again.

"Just one?" she asked dryly.

"I'm only going to get one shot." I took the bazooka and loaded it. "You're going to have to cover me with the freezer. You know how to work it?"

"Point the trigger and press-?"

"That's close enough." I was checking the safeties on the weapon. Everything came up green. Good.

"Wait a minute-" she said. "Just wait a minute-" She held up her hands in front of me. "Have you considered all your options here?"

"Yes-and I am not a free lunch. That leaves only this." I hefted the pipe meaningfully. I stopped and looked at her. "Maybe I'll be lucky. Maybe the worm has already gone away." And then I added, "But I'll bet it hasn't. Here, hold this again."

She took it and said, "I could order you not to do this, you know-"

I was already climbing past her and pulling myself up into the bubble turret. "Go ahead-but court-martials are very time consuming." I opened the shutter.

She called up to me. "We don't court-martial lieutenants for insubordination any more."

"Oh-?"

"No, we just shoot them on the spot. It's cheaper."

I dropped down out of the bubble and jerked my thumb up at it. "Well, before you shoot, you better have a look yourself." She handed me back the rocket launcher and climbed up into the turret. As she brushed past me I couldn't help but notice that she smelled ... interesting. Had this woman really promised me a lobster dinner in Oakland?

"Oh!" she said; and then, after a horrified pause, "But what's it doing?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's considering all its options."

"It's just sitting there-staring at the hatch. . . ."

"Uh huh. And it can probably hear every word we say." Lizard dropped back down out of the turret and stared at me.

"Will this kill it?" she whispered.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"Wait a minute. I have to think this out. Just wait a minute-"

"I can. It won't-" The radio beeped. We both looked forward.

Lizard looked at me. "It's waited this long, you can wait toothat's an order." She scrambled down to the front of the ship to answer the call. "This is ELDAVO." I let out a loud breath and followed sourly.

"ELDAVO, this is the Paul Bunyan-" came a male voice, "-on loan from Oregon Air-Lumber. Captain Peter Price at your service. You called for a tow?"

Lizard smiled grimly. "We'll be happy with just a lift. Of any kind. The sooner the better."

"Well, lift is what it's all about, ma'am. The Paul Bunyan has eighty tons of lift. How much of it do you think you'll need?" Lizard glanced at me, then back at Duke, did a quick mental calculation, and said, "Oh, two hundred and twenty-five kilos ought to cover it." I shouldered the bazooka and dropped impatiently into the copilot's seat. How long was this going to take?

"Puttin' on a little weight there, ain'tcha, gal?" came a new voice. A deep male voice.

Lizard yelped, "Danny! What are you doing there?"

"Came along for the ride. How's my favorite redhead?"

"I can't tell you on an open circuit," she said with a laugh. I wondered who this Danny was and what his relationship was with Lizard. I wondered if I should be jealous. His voice boomed like a foghorn. He was too friendly.

Lizard glanced over at me, saw my eyes, and turned back to the radio. "Listen, Danny-what's your ETA?"

The man's tone shifted then, became more businesslike. "Well ... your beam is loud and clear. We should be overhead sometime in the next two hours. How's your patient?"

"Not good."

"He can't ride in a harness?"

"No, we're going to need a basket."

I leaned forward then. "Ask him if they've got a zip line."

"Who's that?" boomed Danny. "Hey, hon-you got a boyfriend?"

"Don't be silly," Lizard said. "He's only a lieutenant." I felt myself reddening in reaction.

"Cradle-robbing again, I see," Danny laughed heartily. I decided I didn't like him or this conversation.

I leaned forward and spoke to the radio. "Can you rig a zip line?"

"Sure, we've got one, Lieutenant... uh-?"

"McCarthy, James Edward."

"Right," said Danny crisply. "McCarthy."

"And have you got a crab?"

"Excuse me," Captain Price interrupted, "Are you a blimper?"

"No-"

"Then why don't you let us handle the mission?"

"-but I did seven search and destroy drops off of gasbags in Colorado, so I had to learn this stuff the hard way. We've got some problems here-"

"And we've got some problems up here too."

"Are your problems bright red?" I snapped back. "Do they weigh three tons? And can they rip open a chooper with their teeth?" There was silence for a heartbeat; you could almost hear the two men exchanging a glance. Then Captain Price came back on the radio. "You have worms?"

"We have one sitting right outside the front door." Another quick silence.

"Uh. . . " That was Danny. "Lieutenant-" He was speaking very carefully now. "Whatever you do, don't annoy it."

"Colonel, I have no intention of annoying it," I replied, equally carefully. "I am going to kill it." Before he could argue with me, I added, "That worm is going to do one of two things. Either it's going to peel this ship open or it's going to go get the rest of its family-and they will peel this ship open."

"Lieutenant-" the blimp captain interrupted. "Are you an expert on the worms?" There was skepticism in his voice.

"As good as you're going to find in California," I replied matter-of-factly.

Lizard put in then, "Captain Price, he is. I specifically asked for Lieutenant McCarthy to be assigned to me because of his expertise with the Chtorran ecology. If he says the worms are going to shit soup, you'd better bring your bowl and crackers."

"If you say so, Colonel. My apologies for any offense. None intended. But we've had a few bad experiences with groundhogs today, so you'll understand if we're a little testy."

"No problem," Lizard said. She looked at me. "McCarthy?"

"I'm fine." I said to the radio. "But I've got a worm to kill and you're using up my time. Of course, if you've got a better idea, I'd love to hear it. But I'm still the guy whose ass is on the line-"

"Hold it, Lieutenant," came Danny's voice, very calmly. "Nobody's arguing with you any more. You made your point. It's your call. I just want you to be certain-"

Something went thump at the back of the ship. Lizard and I both glanced back. "I'm certain," I said. Again, a thump-this time louder!

Lizard said to the radio, "Danny-it's knocking on the door."

"Go do your job, Lieutenant. We'll keep this line open if you need to talk-"

I was already scrambling.

"-and Lizard, keep an eye on your patient for me." But she was already following me toward the back.

"Grab that freezer!" I pointed. "And a mask!"

"Here-" She tossed goggles at me.

Something banged loudly against the door. The handle rattled and clanged. Duke yelped in his sleep. I pulled the goggles down over my eyes, fitted the mask over my nose and mouth, then turned to help Lizard with the tank harness. "Who's Danny?" I asked.

"Colonel Danny Anderson. Northwest Liaison." She grunted as she pulled the harness into place. "-and whatever he says, he is not just along for the ride."

"Anderson?" I glanced back at Duke. "Duke's last name is Anderson-"

Lizard nodded. "Danny's his son." She stepped away from me to connect the freezer hose.

Duke was moaning now. He was half-awake, half-delirious. He was breathing very raggedly, and he looked worse than ever. "Oh God-no."

And then the scratching began at the door again-