Alien Taste (32 page)

Forget the item, he told himself, focus on the man. What did he know about Prime? Alien memories slipped by, sights seen by alien eyes, the Earth experienced by an alien taste. Prime hadn't seen the lush Oregon wilderness as a place fit for saving. He would have loved better the mountains of New Mexico. The countless animals hadn't stirred him. Truly, Ukiah's mother had been the first thing on the planet he had seen fit for saving. He had seen beauty in her.

Ukiah shook his head. No. That didn't lead to anything. Which number would Prime have selected. He moaned inwardly. Prime number.

He checked his memories. Yes, Prime's name had come from his father, not from the Pack.

Which Prime number?

Ukiah decided on the highest one inside the set of possible slots.

There, like a birthday present waiting to be opened, was the first instruction set. “
Prepare to upload new safety overrides
 . . .”

Had Prime finished it? Ukiah prayed that Prime had, because Ukiah knew he couldn't finish it. The destruction sequence seemed to be complete. If it was, why hadn't Prime uploaded it? What was missing?

Prime probably would have set the active code to “Raise shields” until he could finish the destruction sequence. That way, if something were to go wrong, Prime could quickly trigger the shields, and Hex couldn't wake the sleepers. After he had programmed in the code, but before he had changed the active code, the shields had been raised.

Ukiah rubbed his forehead. Why? Why? Then it hit him. Prime had been overly cautious—he had laid too many plans. He had taken too long setting the sabotage on the main ship and had run out of time. The scout ship had been launched before the destruction of the main ship had been triggered, and the damage hadn't been complete because he hadn't finished.

Prime wouldn't have loaded the code into the active buffer until he was sure, 100 percent. He had finished the code, but had taken too long. The shields were raised instead. Hex had killed Prime, and a long wait to wake the sleepers had started.

Ukiah dropped Prime's program into the active code, overriding the “wake the sleeper” code. If he had a chance, he was going to finish what his father had started. As an afterthought, he also overwrote the “wake the sleeper” code with Prime's program. Hex, if he checked, would easily catch the
substitution and be able to write a new program. It would take time, and time was what they needed.

Ukiah slipped the remote key back into his pocket. The baby woke in Max's arms and started to cry. Fear radiated out of it, striking Ukiah seconds before the sense of Ontongard. He turned and out of the shadows came a host of Hex's Gets.

“Come with us,” one Get intoned, without his words registering on his face, as if he were merely a radio, the voice of Hex piped through him. “Come now, or die.”

 

A door, cloaked by the dark and clutter, seemed as if it should lead to a closet. Instead it gave access to a maze of halls and blank doors—secret passages for airport security and maintenance. They were hustled to a vast upstairs room. Cables snaked from computer to computer. Racks of equipment, empty pop bottles, and greasy pizza boxes littered the floor. The Ontongard had lined up a row of seventy-two-inch flat screen televisions and fed onto them a processed version of the NASA channel, with its live Rover coverage. The result was a huge and grainy picture of Mars, as if you had been suddenly transformed into a small alien being squatting on the surface of the red planet.

Hex paced before the televisions. He turned as the Gets brought in Ukiah, Max, and the baby. “Breeder, Get, Memory. A nice collection of breeding stock, one would hope. Soon to be unnecessary, one would also hope.” He stopped pacing to focus on Max. Ukiah tried to edge sideways, to shield Max from the alien gaze. “There's something wrong with our happy family picture. Your blood failed to create a Get.”

“Thank God,” Max muttered.

“I refuse to bend to you,” Ukiah growled. “I refuse down to every cell in my body.”

Hex looked down at Ukiah. “I can kill you even more painfully this time, and the next time, and the next time, until I reduce you down to only memories.”

Ukiah winced. Obviously refusing wasn't the wisest answer.

And all his memories will hate you,
his Memory unexpectedly retorted from Max's shoulder.
We'll hunt you down and sear you from this planet like a weed.

Hex laughed. “Don't make threats at me, Memory. By the time you can do any hunting, you will believe I'm your father.”

Never! We'll tell ourselves the truth every waking moment of the day, every sleeping moment of the night. We were the Cub and Hex unmade us. We will never forget, even after we've forgotten everything else.

Hex shook his head. “Where did this insanity in Prime's blood come from? I thought it was just a temporary illness in him, something that would have been worked out of his system if I had felt like giving him the time to live. Then his Gets turned up as rabid dogs, nipping constantly at my heels as I tried to finish my mission. And now his son and all his parts—rebellious, traitorous little shits. One wonders if your bloodline is worth trying to use at all. Surely all you will breed will be tainted with your father's insanity.”

Forewarned this time, Ukiah managed to silence his son's next outburst with
Hush, go to sleep,
and Max held a peacefully sleeping baby.

“Prime destroyed the scout ship,” Ukiah replied. “And even after the Rover reaches the main ship, you can't wake the sleepers. I'm all you have.”

Hex waved away the problem. “Getting up to
Mars to lower the shields was the hard part. If I can't get the key back, I'll jury-rig something. I had rough copies made before I realized that I could just modify the Rover's existing equipment. I hate the idea of trusting everything to an untried copy of the key, but in theory it will work. I've got time to fiddle until it does work. One way or another, I will get the damn ship to Earth. Still, it would not do to dispose of you too quickly. I could try for a hybrid with your Memory, half you and half me. That might solve the insanity problem.”

Max took a quick step backward, shielding the baby with his hands.

There was a deep roar below them. The floor heaved up and fell. The lights flickered, browned out, and then steadied. Dust rained down from overhead.

“Go kill those damn dogs!” Hex shouted, and Gets rushed down a staircase on the far side of the room, almost directly opposite from where they had been brought up.

Ukiah thought he heard a distant voice, a cry of dismay, then Rennie's mind touched his.

Cub? He has you?

He does. He stands close to me.

Damn! Your life is safe, but not your soul. Did you do as I asked?

I couldn't.

Rennie broke off the contact instantly and down in the guts of the terminal came a wolf howl. A chorus of wolves went up. It sang to Ukiah of fear, of determination, of hate for an ancient foe.

The Gets had stopped their activities at the computers, heads lifted to listen to the wolf song.

Hex, however, stared at Ukiah. “What did Rennie Shaw ask you to do?”

I had a rough copy made,
Hex had said.
In theory it should work.

“What did Rennie Shaw ask you to do?” Hex asked, moving closer.

Ukiah cringed, remembering being struck full on by the two-by-four.

A weirdly human smile played at Hex's mouth. “I'm sure we can find one of those lying around here. Now, for the last—”

Hex turned suddenly to look back at the wall of TV screens. The Martian landscape had flickered and vanished. Now, displayed across the TV, was the main ship, ugly in the way only a race with no regard for beauty could create ugly. Huge, mottle-colored, it bristled with weapons that Ukiah knew from Pack memory; weapons that even now humans couldn't withstand. He felt a howl of despair beat against his lips, and he swallowed hard to keep it from escaping. He reached out to Max, touched him on the elbow to get his attention, and nodded toward the far staircase where the sounds of fighting had resumed.

“Get one of the duplicate keys,” Hex ordered.

“I'll offer a trade,” Ukiah all but shouted, bringing everyone's attention on him. “Rennie ordered me to break the remote key, but I didn't have a chance.” He backed up slowly. “If you let us go—me, my partner, my memory—I'll give it to you.”

“Why would you die to protect it before and not now?”

“I died to protect my mate. I used the key to stall you, so you wouldn't hurt her. If you have a duplicate key, there's no reason for us to die now. Just let us go, and I'll give you the original key. You don't need us anymore.”

“You're bluffing,” Hex snarled. “You don't have it.”

Ukiah pulled the key out of his pocket and held it up. Behind him, the Pack flung themselves against the locked entrance, the wood groaning was it was tortured out of shape. He changed his grip on the key, thumbs pressed hard at its center point. “Now, let us go, and I'll throw it to you. Try anything, and I'll snap it in half.”

“You've been dealing with humans much too long,” Hex drawled. Like a multiheaded snake striking, there was a sudden blinding motion from all the Gets. One fired a shotgun that caught Ukiah in the side, flinging him sideways into the wall, while others leaped forward.

There was a rush of bodies from the stairwell, and the Pack spilled into the room. The Gets reached Ukiah first, ripped the key from his hand, and flung it across the room to Hex. As the Gets checked the snarling fury of the Pack, Hex slammed the key into the console slot and turned it. Tones started to play in the room, heading out to distant Mars. Bear broke free of the Gets and leaped on Hex, and they went down in a snarling mass.

The fight rolled over Ukiah, then left him behind. Rennie appeared to suddenly haul Ukiah to his feet and slam him against the wall. His large hands closed hard on Ukiah's throat. “What the hell have you done? Have you betrayed everything to try and save one life?”

“I had to give it to him,” Ukiah choked, trying to keep his mind blank. Hex mustn't be warned. “I had to.”

“I should have killed you the first time I saw you,” Rennie roared.

“You've lost, you stupid cur!” Hex was shouting
at Bear. “You had no hope of winning, you rabid dogs! I'll have you all flayed alive and laminate your skins. Stop her!”

Hellena had broken free of the Gets and raced to the instrument panel, hand outstretched for the key. She was going to be able to yank it free before the command was done.

“No!” It was a duet of voice and mind, Hex and Ukiah shouting the same word. Hellena spun like a hard-twisted puppet, her eyes meeting Ukiah's with surprise, and then a bullet exploded her head, spraying gore onto the control console.

“No,” Ukiah repeated, softer, this time in denial.

She'll get better,
he chanted to himself,
she'll get better.

There was a sudden strange stillness in the room as everyone looked at Ukiah, puzzled by his outburst. Hex twisted in Bear's stranglehold to look from Ukiah to Hellena and then to the console, where the key continued to upload its long complicated program in musical tones. Understanding dawned on his alien face.

“He's changed the code! Stop the signal! Stop the signal!”

The fight took a sudden hard change of direction, as the Ontongard struggled to reach the key and the Pack fought to stop them.

“You've changed the code?” Rennie released his grip, his eyes wide with amazement.

“He had another key. A copy. It could have worked. I had to give him the booby-trapped one and hope he'd use it without checking.”

The key finished and dropped silent. On the screen, harsh brilliant light began to fill the ship's view ports, spilling out into the Martian dusk. The
image began to tremble as the great redirected engines shook the ship.

“What did you do?” Rennie breathed, his eyes riveted to the screen. “How could you know how?”

Ukiah gave him the answer in the form of a question.
If the first attempt didn't destroy the ship, Prime, what can you do from Earth? What would take time to set up? Time during which you couldn't dare be caught, so you allowed a monster to be conceived.

Correctly asked, Rennie only needed a moment to think.
Close all the engine exhaust ports, disable the emergency damper system, and then fire the engines at full.

Don't wake the sleepers,
Ukiah replied.

Rennie smiled full with evil delight, then frowned, glancing at the screen filling with light. The pack leader caught Ukiah's shoulder and gave Max a hard push toward the door.
“Run!”

Ukiah could sense Rennie barking silent orders to the Pack. Even as the threesome started to run, the Pack opened an exit, heaving and flinging themselves and Ontongard out of the way.

“What?” Ukiah shouted as they cleared the door. “What did I miss?”

“The sleepers were Plan A for taking over the human race. If they're gone,
you
become Plan A.”