Exterminator : The Dark Beneath

“Of the 10 permanent settlements on Ares almost all have small landing pads to allow the transport of personal and materials by rotor craft. This is especially necessary in the polar research bases and in areas not yet reached by the Monorail system. Shuttle ports capable of handling sub orbital craft, however, are a much larger proposition, requiring significant investment and maintenance, making them an expensive proposition. Currently only two are active on the planet, one in the southern reaches to supplier the smaller outposts there, and another in the Archaeology valley, which is by far the larger facility, linking to the two largest and most important settlements on the planet, the vital food production centre of Yorktown, and the gleaming jewel of Gen-techs endeavours in the sector, the Archaeology”

-Colonies and infrastructure by Constants Chow, Tau Seti Daily Times.

9:45, Shuttle port

The shuttle ride to the surface had been relatively pleasant, the planet’s thin atmosphere and expert skills of the pilots making the whole descent smooth, with only a faint trace of superheated air from re-entry streaking by the cabin windows.

“It’s almost anticlimactic” April commented, as if the universe should somehow make their first time on a new planet more memorable. Personally Juliet was just eager to stand on a world again after weeks in space, the monotony of being stuck in the same ship for days and days boring her to tears. The shuttle flew over terrain made of the barren red rock that seemed to make up the majority of the planet, forming weathered broken cliffs and cracked valleys interspersed with huge rolling dunes of red sand, like a stormy sea of frozen red water.

The speakers over head crackled as the cockpit announced;

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out of the windows on the right of the shuttle we’ll be passing by Gentech’s famous Archaeology, we should have a pretty good view with the visibility this good.”

Juliet and April craned their necks to peer out the window, seeing a chain of broken cliffs passing by them, showing increasing sign of industry, small mine-heads and buildings increasing in frequency and size, until suddenly the drab Grey concrete and red rock gave way to a glistening vision of glass and metal.

The Archaeology was a huge pyramid of reflective glass and steel, standing atop a towering cliff face like some ancient monument brought forwards in time. It towered over the collection off buildings scattered around its base, dwarfing them by its size and majesty. Juliet dismissed them for a moment before realizing that the tiny looking buildings were colossal warehouses and factories, huge structures designed to house masses of cargo or machines, made to seem small next to the Archaeology.

The shuttle banked, moving away from the glass pyramid, giving her a glimpse of the buildings and colossal vents emerging from the cliff face below it, overshadowed by the protruding edge of the titanic structure. As they turned Juliet spotted a flash of light below them and, looking down to see a thin snake of reflective metal speeding away from the Arc, she realized that it was a mono-rail line. They followed it across a desert of broken rock and sand, keeping pace with the speeding train below for a few minutes before Juliet felt the shuttle begin to slow.

Out of the window more monorail lines began to appear, looking like strands of silver spider silk against the red below, until finally the shuttle port appeared, its huge domes like a collection of upturned bowls, or metallic flower buds.

“Standby for landing!” The speakers announced as the cabin crew efficiently checked their passengers, before buckling into their own flight chairs.

The shuttle began to rapidly descend, causing feeling of weightlessness in her gut that Juliet ignored with the long practice of a seasoned traveller. Several passengers grasped their hand rests slightly, probably Earthers or from a planet without the need for a lot of air travel. Martians like Julia and April were so used to shuttle transport they barely even thought about it anymore. Nearing landing, they passed through the open doors of their target dome, the metal doors starting to close once the shuttle was clear, as if they were the pellets of some exotic plant opening, but in reverse. Outside on the grey and black stained concrete Juliet could see landing drones and suited workers waiting to the side, and the high glass windows of a flight tower, with people inside typing away on clear screens.

The shuttle landed with a slight bump, the pistons on its three powerful landing legs compressing to absorb most of the impact as the hundred tonne of metal and composite finally met the ground. Almost immediately people began unlocking their belts and grabbing hand luggage as outside landing crews and their drones moved forwards to begin unloading cargo and checking the shuttle.

The speakers crackled: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived slightly earlier than scheduled, the local time is 15.45 hours. Shortly the passenger umbilical will dock and we can begin disembarkation. I hope you have enjoyed your time with us, and from the Apollo crew and our selves we wish you a pleasant stay on Ares, thank you”

Juliet stood and grabbed her bag from the overhead, she moved out into the walkway to join the passengers queuing at the door when Dr Branson approached in the company of a female flight attended.

“Hold on girls, we are not disembarking from the passenger doors. Dr Matthews has authorized us to disembark alongside our cargo to ensure its safe handling. We will see that it’s safely stored for tonight before we head to our new accommodations”

“OK professor,” she sighed, sitting down to wait for the crowd to thin.

“What’s wrong?“ April asked, without looking away from the window. ”You know how delicate the equipment and samples are. Some labourer might drop them or store them in a hot environment, and then we’d be buggered”

“I know, I know. It’s just I really want to get off this ship and have a decent shower and relax. No offense April, but sharing a room was OK in University, but it kind of wears thin”

April turned and looked at her in mock offense. ”Well! If that’s how you appreciate the joy, nay transcendental bliss of being in my company, I shall leave you to sort out the gene splicing on your own.” she ended with a theatrical huff, before winking at Juliet to show she was joking.

“Fine.” Juliet remarked, moving into the walkway as she saw Dr Branson wave them over, glancing over her shoulder with a grin.

”At least I’ll be away from your smelly feet!”

Bickering amicably they followed the professor down into the depths of the shuttle, ending up in the bare metal and plastic of the cargo bay. Mathew was already waiting, leaning against a large equipment crate and tapping his foot in impatiently. Beside him were Dr Valeria Sarcova and Dr Abraham Assam, the well built blond Danish woman talking to the taller man, her fair hair and skin forming a strong contrast to his ebony colouring and close cropped dark hair. The two were amongst the most physically able of the scientists in the team, Sarcova looking like one of the Valkyries her Viking ancestors worshipped, where as Dr Assam Looked more like a quarterback then a respected Neuroscientist, his muscular frame and wide shoulders making him an imposing figure, although the delicate wire glasses he insisted on wearing somewhat softened his look.

The two looked up from their conversation and smiled at the girls before looking expectantly at Dr Branson, impatience evident in their stance.

“Well my friends, I’m afraid you two are my choice of assistants to get this lot stored safely. On a positive note I’ve sent the rest of the team onwards with our personal luggage, so by the time we’re finished your things should be waiting in your new digs.”

One of the crew entered the room and instructed everyone to walk to a square of warning tape in the centre of the cargo bay before triggering a command on their smart-pad. The metal under their feet began to descend, a line of light widening as they moved to reveal the landing pad below them, a waft of hot air reaching them, heavy with the smell of fuel, oil and ionization from the counter gravity units on the shuttle’s wings. The platform came to rest on the bay floor, the bulk of the shuttle looming above them like a bird over its eggs. A trio workers leading a group of forklift sized cargo drones moved to meet them, dressed in orange jump suits, with high visibility vests and breather masks over their lower face. The drones swiftly began picking up cargo using their sturdy manipulator arms, and trundled across the concrete to place them on a lift platform set into the floor of the pad, boxed off with yellow and black warning paint and spinning red lights.

“If you follow me to the lift, we’ll send you all down into the main bay with your cargo.” remarked a worker, sounding harried as he quickly worked to direct the drones. Juliet figured he was slightly put off by taking civilians on a cargo lift.

The team walked out from under the shuttle, giving them a look around the landing pad. There weren’t any other shuttles parked in it for the moment, although it looked large enough to hold several comfortably. Glancing up as they neared the lift, Juliet could see the other passengers walking across the clear docking tube above and through a entranceway set two stories up in the huge wall.

Once they were all aboard the worker triggered its descent, slowly lowering them and their cargo down through the 5 metre thick concrete and metal that made up the bay floor. A metal cover closed overhead, and Juliet had a moment of claustrophobia before the platform emerged into a huge cargo bay, their view from forty or so metres above the floor allowing them to see over the lines of carefully stacked containers to watch workers and drones moving with an air of organized chaos. As they reached the floor, the lead worker addressed the professor.

“Alright, equipment and resources of a non-volatile or delicate nature will be stored in section C until loading onto the monorail. The Work Order says you have several crates containing volatiles and another with perishable organics. The volatiles will go into the secure bays over there, and the organics into the chilled bay where we store the other perishables. Any questions?”

The professor shook his head, before instructing Juliet, April and Sarcova to oversee the storage of the volatiles, whilst he, Matthew, and Assam looked over the machinery they had brought with them. The perishables would be moved once the cargo chief assigned an area for them to occupy.

A drone operator waved for them to follow and began leading his robotic transporters away with the equipment, instructing the team members to keep close.

“Don’t want none of you run over by a drone or flattened by a crate now do we?”

They made their way over to the far wall, stopping occasionally to let huge cargo drones trundle by, their story height frames putting Juliet in mind of the old earth trucks she’d seen in movies, albeit with huge manipulator arms. The air reeked of metal and chemicals, and Juliet found herself shivering slightly in the chill air, having only worn a thin cardigan over her tee-shirt.

Finally reaching the far wall the drones froze as the controller tapped instructions into the pad of the secure bay doors, but nothing happened. He typed them in again, before swearing softly.

“Hold on folks, seems the codes have been changed again!” he glanced around and nodded to his left. ”You see Rubin over yonder. big guy with the beard? Could one of you fetch him for me? I’m not allowed to leave the drones unattended with cargo. Just keep near the wall and you’ll be fine.”

Juliet nodded and walked off with April in tow, moving between the chest height blast walls towards the large bearded worker, who seemed to be talking to someone inside a bay. As they approached Juliet caught a glimpse of two men crouched beside an equipment crate inside. A skinny dark skinned man in workers’ overalls was talking to a broad shouldered man with blond hair cut in a vaguely military looking style, wearing odd yellow and black clothing which looking like some kind of security gear. Her examination was interrupted by April talking to the bearded man.

“Excuse me, are you Rubin?” she asked, causing the man to glance over his shoulder at them, his eye widening in surprise. He turned to face them, eyes briefly running up and down them before moving guiltily to their faces. Juliet raised an eyebrow at him, and to her surprise the big man blushed bright red above his beard in embarrassment.

“Sorry!” he apologized, ”wasn’t expecting to see two lovely Ladies down here. What can I do for you?”

“Well mister charmer,” April replied with a grin, “our science team has some volatiles to store until they’re transported to the ARC tomorrow, but the worker with us is having issues with the door code and sent us over here to tell you.”

Juliet was only partly listening to the conversation, her gaze kept wondering back to the man in the yellow and black suit. She couldn’t see his face but something about him struck her as familiar. She was just about to wonder over when Rubin bellowed to someone named David, causing her to jump slightly in shock. The dark skinned man turned to them and Rubin waved him over, looking apologetically at Juliet.

“Sorry to startle you, miss, but it’s mighty loud in here, and David’s spaced out when he’s busy”

David walked up to them, his eyes widening on seeing the two girls, and kept glancing at them as Rubin outlined the problem. David consulted his smart pad for a moment, before grinning, his white teeth startlingly bright against his skin.

“Ok, I’ve got it!” he declared in a surprisingly deep voice and giving them a wink, “Follow me lovely ladies, let’s get your gear stored.”

“Why, lead on my good man” April joked, linking arms with the startled worker before leading him towards the others whilst discussing imaginary artworks on the concrete wall. Juliet shook her head at her friend’s antics and headed after them. She tried to get a last glimpse at the other man but he had moved behind the crate.

Shaking her head she hurried to catch up with April, joining them as she was waxing on about impressionism to David, when Juliet coughed.

“Sorry to interrupt, but who was the man back there, and what was he wearing?”

David looked confused for a second before shrugging.

“Not sure about his name, I think it was John or Josh or something, and that was a Exterminators uniform, you never seen one before?”

“Not really.” Juliet replied with a grimace. “I mean I’ve seen the pictures and I think they’re a menace. I mean seriously, giving criminals and nut jobs access to military gear is bad enough, but sending them out to slaughter creatures with blades and flamethrowers is crazy. Mars had pest controllers, but they used humane traps and the government introduced measures to decrease numbers.”

“Also” April joined in angrily” they kill off the creatures that have best adapted to the new worlds. These creatures should be studied for what they could tell us”

David frowned slightly as she spoke, slowing slightly as they approached the team.

“I agree with you about the Exterminators as people. The guy back there is sound, but some of the others are whack jobs, but I’m not sure there’s another way here. Our rats and scorpions aren’t your average pests, they’re bigger, fiercer, and can survive things that would kill just about anything else that walks or breaths. They breed like you wouldn’t believe, and their gnawing into cables and pipes is a big deal. They bite the wrong wire or chew through the wrong bulkhead and we could lose power in a whole sector, or trigger a blast door or something. The Exterminators might not be the nicest guys, but what they do is important.” he finished, dropping his voice as they re-joined the main group.

After a few moments of David and their guide putting their heads together they managed to find the right codes and got the equipment safely stored. Juliet signed her digital signature to state her satisfaction and the party then moved back to the centre of the bay, waiting as the final supplies were lowered from the shuttle pad. Dr Branson and the others re-joined them as the drones loaded the crates and began ferrying the to a refrigerated part of the bay.

“The cold storage is by the outer wall,” a worker informed them as they approached a large set of sealable airlock doors that jutted from of the wall as part of a small auxiliary room.

Two of the workers grabbed a pair of silvered coats hanging on a nearby wall as well as breathing masks, before the guide tapped a screen to open the door. A gentle wave of mist rolled out, causing Juliet to shiver slightly. Beyond the first door was a room with a similar set of doors at the end, forming a small airlock. As the doors closed their guide typed on a clear-screen to the side, and a small monitor showed the inside of the airlock open and the workers directed the guides through.

“The room inside is kept at about minus 10 degrees, so if you want to go inside you’ll have to wear an environmental coat and a re-breather.” he said, gesturing to the rack of coats. ”The wall of the cool section contains heat exchangers with the planet’s atmosphere. We don’t actually cool it; we have to slightly heat it above the outside temp,” their guide continued distractedly as he typed their details into the storage log “The atmosphere inside is also slightly adjusted to contain more nitrogen as it helps suppress anything trying to grow, which is why the masks are required.”

The doors opened and the workers excited, shivering slightly and rubbing their arms.

“Ought to be wearing a environmental suit to work in the icebox. Just about froze my tits off!” the female worker muttered.

“Alright, everyone.“ the professor chirped cheerily ”Who’s going inside to ensure our supplies are stored correctly?” he asked expectantly, oblivious to the dirty looks the workers cast his way.

“I’m sure the work is fine,” April chimed in “I think Juliet should have a look. She’s the biochemist after all”

Juliet looked at April in shock, seeing her friend grinning evilly, knowing how much she hated the cold.

“Good idea April. Dr Valeria, would you mind accompany her, I’m sure a native Swede would be better off inside then the rest of us”

Valeria nodded seriously and walked over the coats, selecting the largest and sliding into it, her long blond hair flowing over the back. With a murder filled glance at April, Juliet joined her, slipping into a much smaller coat and gloves, along with a breather. The workers directed them into the airlock so they couldn’t obstruct the drones.

The door shut behind them, and Juliet’s hair was blown around as the lock equalized the inside pressure, shivering as cold air caressed her legs and began to sting her face. The inner doors opened and they moved out into a warehouse, the area around the doors lit with floodlights. As the drones moved out, lights overhead activated to follow them, illuminating row upon row of metal shelves stretching to the high ceiling above.

The female worker gestured to some insulated flashlights on the wall.

“Stay close,“ she instructed “I don’t want you getting in the way of the drones, besides I think we all want out of here ASAP. By the way, I’m Mandy, and this is Paul. Just do what we say when we say it.”

“OK, quick question “Juliet replied, looked around “Why aren’t there any lights this section?”

“A few have blown out in this area for some reason over the last day” Mandy replied absently, checking her clear pad. “It’s probably a faulty coupling somewhat but with all the maintenance departments being rushed with the storm, who knows when it’ll be fixed. Now come on”

Juliet nodded huddled, following after the drones, which had moved five meters down a row to the left. She played the powerful beam of the torch around as they moved, its beam barely reaching the far end of the room. The shelves and floor were covered ice crystals, which crunched loudly underfoot, and the warehouse was filled with the gentle hum of machinery. Storage crates of different shapes and sizes filled the shelves, from plastics used to store foods and perishables, to chemical storage units for organics. As everything was sealed, most storage units allowed a range of materials to be stored in the same space, as contamination was highly unlikely and easily traceable.

As Juliet and Valeria neared the drones, Juliet was playing the torch around the area when she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of the beam. She stopped and redirected it, but found nothing.

“Come on!“ the male worker called from his perch atop a small sliding ladder, “We don’t have all day!”

“Sorry!“ Juliet apologized, hurrying over. “I thought I saw something.”

“Nah” the woman said as she showed Valeria their crates “there’s nothing in here, the dark and sound plays tricks on your eyes”

Juliet nodded slowly. Maybe she had imagined it. Turing her attention to the crates, she climbed up the ladder and checked the seals and ran a quick diagnostic using the containers inbuilt clear-glass system. Happy that the contents where safe, she carefully climbed down the rubberized steps and smiled at the workers through the clear plastic of the mask.

“That’s great thanks, I’m sorry that we had to check ourselves, we weren’t questioning your competence, it’s just something our supervisors say we have to do as the materials are so delicate.”

Mandy nodded, her shoulders relaxing somewhat as she gave Juliet a slight smile.

“That’s OK, I know what it’s like to have management breathing down your neck about regs.” Her companion nodded in agreement as he clicked the ladder back into place.

The four of them started back along the row, drones trundling head of them.

Juliet was letting her light wander again, peering between the crates and wondering what they contained. They were just nearing the end of the row when her torchlight fell on the corner of a large crate, highlighting a series of dark scratches in the white corrugated plastic. She slowed slightly, and moved the torch to follow the marks around the side, to find a dark hole in the corner, its sides rough and broken.

The others had stopped slightly ahead of her and were looking back, shivering slightly in the cold.

“Come on Doc, let’s get out of here!” Mandy implored, looking longingly at the well-lit doorway at the end of the aisle. Juliet beckoned them over.

“I think something’s damaged this crate, it’s got a hole in the side.”

Paul looked annoyed but trudged over to stand by her. His dark eyebrows rose in surprise and he ran a gloved hand around the broken edge.

“What the hell..” He muttered , crouching slightly to shine his light through the gap. Juliet crouched behind to peer over his shoulder to see that a corner of the crate had been hollowed out, creating a void with its walls made up of silver foiled food packs. Tucked inside was a strange jelly like sack, grey and pink in the torchlight, with strange veins and ripples along the surface.

On seeing it Paul’s eyes widened.

“Oh shit” he whispered, pulling back and dragging Juliet with him. ”We need to get out of here Mandy, we’ve got Rats!”

Mandy’s eyes widened and her whole body tensed “ What? It can’t be, They don’t come this close to the surface, it’s too cold!”

Paul began hurriedly dragging Juliet towards the door, turning his head to whisperer urgently behind him.

“I know what it is Mandy, we need to move now before...AARR”

Paul screamed in pain as something lunged out from the bottom shelf to latch onto to his foot, Juliet glimpsing grey skin and sharp teeth before Mandy jumped forward and swung a booted foot, eliciting a squeak of anger as the creature withdrew. The darkness around was suddenly filled with the sound of scrabbling claws on metal and plastic, with angry squeaks and hisses from the darkness around them.

“RUN!” Mandy screamed, grabbing the injured Paul and half dragging the limping man towards the doorway, Juliet and Valeria sprinting after them. Her heart pounded and the skin on her back crawled at the sounds around them as she fought not to slip on the icy floor. Luckily the door was only a few metres away, and she managed to slide to a ungainly stop behind Mandy, who was rapidly cycling the airlock, as Paul shouted into his smart-pad.

“Code 52 code 52, we have Rats in storage 5, I say again Rats in storage 5!”

The doors retracted and they piled inside, Mandy slamming a control to seal them. Just before they closed Juliet saw an animal charge into the light, looking for all the world like a grey skinned, hairless, Terran rat, but larger and covered in patchy grey skin with vicious little limbs sprouting from its chest, before the door closed and the vents cycled warm air inside as the pressure equalized. Paul collapsed to the floor holding his foot, with Mandy crouched beside him as Juliet slid down the wall, panting from the adrenalin rush.

The door opened letting in the jarring sound of alarms, revealing the shocked faces of their team. Dr Branson stared at them in shock.

“What on earth is going on?”

Mandy ignored him and turned a nearby man in different uniform then the other workers.

“The Cold Store has a Rat infestation, Boss. A lot of them!”

The man swore quietly and raised a hand to his eyes with a sigh, before turning to face the growing crowd of workers.

“OK people, listen up. We’ve got Rats in the store, so you know what this means. Check all the other bays, carefully now, and then lock them down. Someone tell Logistics to start rerouting perishables to temporary holding, and for the love of God don’t spread this around!”

Workers around them swore and started rapidly moving around the area, getting drones to move cargo away, discussing which other bays to use as storage, and what to do about incoming deliveries. The supervisor was talking rapidly on his Smart pad, and Juliet caught him mentioning calling in Exterminators.

Dr Branson looked flustered and moved up to the supervisor.

“Excuse me, but what about our supplies. Half our reagents are in that store and the other half are stuck out here. When can we get them back?”

The supervisor turned to him in annoyance, one hand over the smart-pad.

“Look, this bay is on lock down until the Exterminators get here and kill the Rats, probably wrecking a load of cargo and causing a pain in my ass at the same time. I have cargo landing down here that needs sorting but regs state that I can’t accept more cargo or send any out until the issue is resolved. Therefore, I need to re-route tens of tonnes of cargo to other storage bays so forgive me if your science project isn’t a priority right now. Until the Rats are gone, your cargo isn’t going anywhere!”