Chapter 58 - The Kraken Gate
The workforce was cowering behind the partially completed palisade, firing crossbows into the forest beyond. There was a lot of yelling and two of Harman’s carpenters were gesticulating at something on the far side. Mahkran was standing behind a stack of lumber, reloading his crossbow.
‘What’s happening?’ I shouted.
‘Worms! Big worms come from the forest.’ He slotted a new quarrel and turned to peer back over the logs.
I followed his line of sight. Thirty paces out, the third carpenter was swinging a stave at a white monstrosity, a pallid tube of a creature whose back half was on the ground and whose front half reared up over the man. The worm’s skin was partially translucent. Bluish organs and vessels pulsed beneath its pale flesh. It had two clear lenses on its head that I took to be eyes, and its mouth was a puckered hole, two or three hands across. Behind it, a dozen or more of the worms were looping out from under the trees. Their front halves lunged forward and plunged head-first to the ground before the back half hunched forward to join the head. At the speed they were advancing, our position would be overrun in less than a turn.
‘Wrackworm!’ cried Evershed. He had come to a trembling halt, his usual enthusiasm for discovering a new species notably absent.
‘You know what these things are?’
‘No, but they look a bit like wrackworm from the Stormlet Marshes, only much, much bigger.’
Two of the marines had run out to help the carpenter, but before they reached him, Mahkran loosed another crossbow bolt. The lead worm’s head ruptured. It crashed to the ground. There was a ragged cheer, but two more of the worms immediately advanced to take its place. The carpenter jabbed one with his stave. It recoiled, temporarily retracting its head into its body. Emboldened, the carpenter stepped forward to jab it again, but he was too slow. The worm’s head shot out, arching over and then down, its maw clamping over the man’s head.
The marines ran at the worm, intent on running it through with Na-Su’s spears, but it lashed out at them, batting them aside using the carpenters body. Then, with a peristaltic contraction of its body, the worm sucked the carpenter inside itself. I swear I heard a slurping sound.
Mahkran reloaded again. With deadly accuracy, the sharpshooter fired at a worm rearing over one of the fallen marines. The quarrel tore a hole in its side, buying the man precious moments to scramble to his feet. He had been wielding one of the new scythes which he recovered quickly. Using it, he sliced the creature’s head off. There was a cheer from several of his comrades, but the celebration was premature. The army of tubular horrors was upon them. The marine fell under a simultaneous attack from two worms; the other man couldn’t get close and ran for his life.
Those marines who were equipped with crossbows continued firing. Overstrand was calling out to them to stay calm, to avoid fumbling as they reloaded. Two worms collapsed, writhing and twisting in their death throes, but now several of them reached the palisade. I picked up a spear that someone had dropped and kept one of the nightmares at bay. Mahkran shot it, but another one immediately took its place. The Gulreimian tossed the crossbow on the ground and grabbed his scythe. Together we slashed and hacked at the worms, managing to keep them from looping over the stack of logs and into the heart of the camp.
‘Are there any behind us?’ I yelled at Evershed. He was paralysed in place, his face a mix of terror and fascination.
‘No, they’re only coming from one direction,’ he managed to squawk.
‘Thank Draxil for small mercies,’ I gasped. The effort of holding the swarm back was beginning to tell.
A cry of alarm went up to our left, but I had no time to glance over at what was happening. One of the beasts had looped up onto the logs and was looking down at us. Its head swayed, questing which way to go next. I brought my spear around and down, hoping to cleave the thing in two. Unfortunately I’d misjudged the distance, so the flint head of the spear only sliced open a shallow wound in the pale flesh. Gelatinous ichor splashed my face, but Mahkran’s scythe arced upwards and sliced the worm in two.
We readied to fend off the last of the marauding creatures, but there was no need, for the handful left alive were no longer interested in us. Instead, they had stopped to feed on the bodies of their fallen. I watched, disgusted, as one nearby sucked at the intestines of the pale corpse beside it. It was the same up and down the unfinished palisade. Between us and the trees from where they had emerged, fifteen of them were similarly feasting on their kind.
Mahkran spat and called out in his native tongue. ‘Kambrae na relat nonshaapa, en-der-shulak ra dahm besmemta!’ which my slender grasp of Gulrei led me to believe meant something like, ‘Lo, we fell upon the devils, even as they climbed from the depths of hell!’
Suddenly, Mahkran was over the wall and set about the distracted worms one-by-one with his scythe. The marines and two of Harman’s labourers joined him, making short work of it.
I sat down on a tree stump and mopped my brow.
‘Why do you think they attacked us?’ I asked Evershed. He had recovered his composure and was scribbling in a notebook. He looked up at me through his spectacles.
‘I couldn’t say. Perhaps they were migrating through here and we were simply in the way.’
‘Or perhaps they were out hunting as a pack and chanced on us?’
‘Or that,’ conceded the naturalist.
Overstrand had joined us. ’Draxil’s beard! How many more things on this planet want to kill us?’ he asked. The naturalist had no answer for that.
‘I count one of Mr. Jupp’s apprentices and one of your marines among the casualties,’ I said to the lieutenant. ‘Any others?’
‘Private Brough’s in a bad way. One of the worms sucked most of the meat off his leg. We’ve got a tourniquet on him, but the medic may have to amputate.’ Overstrand nudged at the remains of a worm. Pale goo pulsed from its decapitated body and puddled on the ground. ‘No one else though,’ he said with a grimace.
I turned to Mahkran. ’Do you think they’re edible?’
‘Be my guest, chief,’ he replied. ‘I suddenly don’t feel very hungry.’
We decided to distribute the corpses of the worms around the perimeter of the camp. They might serve as a warning to other creatures, but they’d also serve as a distraction if any more of their kin came this way.
Hot tea was brewed over a camp fire, and after everyone had eaten from the meagre rations that had been brought through the portal, work resumed on the compound. By the time night fell, there was a protective wall around three sides of the camp, about thirty paces across, and a temporary barricade across the unfinished side. It would have to do. We were all exhausted.
Mahkran and I helped to light watch fires. Overstrand set a perimeter and picked five of the marines to patrol it until it was time for the portal to reopen.
‘You were incredible today,’ I said to Mahkran, when we had found somewhere to sit down. I patted the weapon he’d put down beside him. ‘Your skill with the crossbow is as extraordinary as your marksmanship with a rifle.’
‘Thank you, Ms. Derringer, but the technique for firing both weapons is almost identical; composure, controlled breathing and gentle pressure on the trigger. I just wish the crossbow was quicker to reload!’
I agreed, adding, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry for what, ma’am?’
‘I know how much you want to return to your family.’ I stopped, my throat constricted with emotion. Mahkran went to speak but I stalled him. ‘No. Let me say it. Your daughter is growing up without you, and we’re even further away from her now than any of us could have possibly imagined just a few cycles ago. When this is done…when Harman has a base of operations here, I will write to your prince and beg him to give you some time back at home.’
Mahkran smiled kindly, the tiny creases at the corner of his eyes deepened. ‘I never understand your people. Mah-li and my wife live here in my heart.’ He tapped his chest. ‘And when she is older, my daughter will learn of my service in the line of duty, and her heart will be full of pride. She will understand that I could not serve our prince by sitting at home by the fireside.’
‘All the same, I’m sure she would cherish a few weeks each year getting to know you.’
‘Do not trouble yourself, boss. I shall return to my people one day, blessed with a great many stories to tell.’
Full night was very dark on Ganessa, which was either something to do with circling a single star, or the fact that there was no moon…at least none that I’d seen so far. For a long while, I looked up at the unfamiliar stars and listened to the discordant creaks and cries of the night fauna. I may have drifted off, because the next thing I knew, Mahkran was tugging my arm. The portal was open again and we were all evacuating back to our own world for a few hours of proper rest.
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