Grendel Unit Read online

  In the corner of the room, Vic Cojo set down his tablet and looked up at Monster. "You done laying around yet?"

  "How long?" Monster said.

  "A couple days. Here and there. You'd come to, your eyes would wobble, and you'd pass back out. It's a good thing Frank was here. The local doctors didn't know whether to stuff you or skin you for a rug."

  The last memory of the burning building and the little girl clinging to his chest as he leapt flashed in his mind, as hot and bright as the flames themselves. He struggled to sit up, "How is she? Where is she?"

  Vic looked away, turning his eyes to the hospital's large bay window.

  Monster collapsed back on the bed and let out a long slow whimper of despair. "I want…to know… who did it."

  Vic held up the tablet and said, "A human named Yultorot. He's a member of the Felps-Pogrom Sect. Religious extremists who believe their God gave them dominion over the creatures of the universe."

  "I have encountered them before," Monster muttered. "They sent a formal letter of protest to the Unification Academy when I was accepted. I did not see any non-humans in the crowd of people gathered outside the school, though."

  "Cinth-Combs has always been a human-exclusive settlement. No alien life forms allowed, up until two years ago when they wanted to import our fuel cells. Part of their trade agreement with Unification is that they adopt a school curriculum of equilateral existence. Andoho-Sky Elementary was the test pilot program for that."

  "So they blew it up?"

  Vic nodded.

  Monster looked over at him, "Just for teaching something they don't agree with? When do we find Yultorot and get to kill him?"

  "I've been in touch with General Milner regarding the incident for several days. He finally issued the green light yesterday."

  Monster grabbed his sides and struggled to get out of the bed, "What are we still doing here, then? Let's go."

  Vic waited for Monster to stand up and stretch, his long, dark arms brushing the ceiling of the room. "I've got something to do first."

  People in the hospital's hallways stared at Monster as they walked past, looking up silently at his massive alien face. Vic stopped in front of a small flower stand near the nurse's reception area and pointed to a small bouquet. "I'll take that one," he said.

  The cashier wrapped up the flowers and tied a pink ribbon around them, smiling warmly at Vic as she handed them over. Vic thanked her, turned, and presented Monster with the flowers.

  Monster looked down at them, "Thank you, Captain, but I don't believe it's a human custom for one male to give flowers to another."

  "You're kidding me?" Vic said dryly. "They're not for you."

  Vic headed down another hall, waving for Monster to follow him into a new hallway, decorated with pictures of balloons, clowns, and spaceships. A few children roamed the floor, some of them with freshly-shaved heads, and a few dragging large medical apparatuses around with them that connected to their bodies with tubes and wires. All of them looked at Monster in mystified wonder. He nodded at them and said, "Hello, little humans" and they all laughed and either waved or ran away. "What are we doing here, Captain?"

  Vic came to the last door on his right and stopped in front of the closed blinds. He nodded at the room's door and said, "She only woke up last night. First thing she asked for was the big teddy bear that saved her."

  Monster stared at the door, unable to speak. A crowd of nurses and doctors and other hospital staff had filled in behind them, watching intently. Vic looked up at the mantipor and said, "Both her parents worked at Andoho-Sky. She lost them and a little brother. She is the only survivor from the entire school. Because of you."

  Monster clutched the flowers in his massive paw, feeling his lower jaw quiver so that his fangs scraped against each other like saw blades.

  "Well?" Vic said. "Go inside and say hello. Her name's Gertie. I know she'll be happy to see you."

  Monster lowered his head and walked past the captain, making his way slowly toward the hospital room's door and knocking lightly. "Hello?" he said.

  The cry of joy inside the room made Vic smile for the first time in a long time.

  They staggered the funerals by grade, keeping the teachers with their children. Long rows of caskets filled the street with groups of mourners passing from one to the other. The sound of weeping echoed from the faces of the surrounding buildings until it pummeled the crowd from every direction, filling the city with their despair.

  The Grendel Unit's presence brought looks of surprise and scorn from the mourners. As Unification representatives, they embodied the forced school curriculum that had brought the tragedy about. Monster, in particular, endured the most open stares. Everyone had heard of Gertie's rescue by then, and he was the only mantipor on the planet.

  They moved in the back of the crowd, trying to create as little distraction as possible as they approached the viewing area. Vic saw the first row of coffins and it struck him how small they were, how tiny the bodies were within them. Rage and anguish clouded and choked him from within like pollution. His knees quivered. He coughed and swallowed and tried to contain himself, humiliated to be so affected in front his men, the words of his academy instructors mocking him in his thoughts, "Never let a subordinate officer see you lose it."

  This is different, Vic thought.

  He rubbed his face on his sleeve quickly and glanced to his side, only to see that Buehl and Monster were too busy trying to hide their own faces from one another. Everybody except Frank, who just let the tears stream, not giving a damn what anybody thought.

  The crowd ahead of them stopped and began talking, a few of them looking back in Monster's direction and pointing. "What now?" Vic said.

  The people parted as if divided by an unseen hand, moving aside to let the small, bandaged form of the school's only survivor pass. Gertie smiled and waved when she saw Monster and held her arms out wide for him. He bent down and picked her up in his shaggy arms, smiling sadly when she whispered in his ear.

  "Yes," he said. "I'd be happy to."

  Monster carried the little girl forth, moving through the mystified crowd as Gertie laid her head on his soft, furry shoulder. "I didn't hear what she said," Frank said.

  "She asked him if he would take her to see her parents," Buehl said.

  No one spoke as they finally made their way back aboard the Samsara. Monster carried a small doll, a gift from Gertie, with him in his massive paws. He set it on the ship's console in front of his cockpit seat and sat down, staring at it silently.

  Buehl slid into his seat and said, "Where to, Captain?"

  Vic jerked his thumb in the air and said, "Just get us up, Bob." He waved for Frank to squeeze into the cockpit as well, and watched as the thrusters carried them high above the mass of mourners and rubble and surrounding buildings below. He waited until they passed through the clouds and upper atmosphere and finally rose into the dark embrace of space. He took a deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts. "All right, everybody listen up."

  Bob threw several switches on the console to activate the ship's stabilizers and turned in his swivel chair. Monster did not take his eyes off the doll. Vic tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You too, Big Man. Turn around and look at me."

  The mantipor slowly turned to face his captain, his face dark and simmering with anger.

  "I know this has been hard. I know that Bob and Monster are thinking about their kids, their families, and why we've got to be out here in this godforsaken vacuum when maniacs like the Yultorot are loose. What we saw down there was devastating. But here's the thing." Vic looked around at each of his men, "It's fallen to us to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm going to commit, right now, on the souls of those dead children, that this will never happen again. Roger that?"

  "Roger that," the others said softly.

  "Bob, I need as much intel on our target as you can find. I want to know where he sleeps, what he drinks, who he knows, what kind of diapers he wore as
a baby."

  "On it, boss."

  "Monster, track down all activities by these Felps-Pogrom dirtbags. I want to know who sanctioned the attack, who helped plan it, who Yultorot answers to. After we waste his sorry ass, we're going to move up the chain and spread a little peace and joy all over the galaxy, Grendel-style."

  "With pleasure," Monster said.

  Vic looked at Frank, "And you. Find me an asset. I don't care who it is. Find me someone who can get to Yultorot and lure him out into the open. Somebody reliable. Somebody with a backbone of pure steel."

  Frank nodded knowingly and said, "I have just the guy."

  4. Mission is Go!

  S'bal slapped the walls of the airlock with his flippers and screamed out, "No way in hell!" The baggy, plastic suit rippled in the jets of air streaming from every direction, keeping the lock pressurized. He pounded the door behind him, "Let me back in! I can't do this!"

  Monster pressed the intercom button on the wall and said, "The airlock is sealed. Your jump window will expire in fifteen seconds. Go now!"

  "I can't jump!" S'bal shrieked. "Get this thing off of me!" The fish clawed at the breathing mask strapped to his face, trying to undo the straps they'd fashioned around it to keep it from slipping down his neck.

  Frank tapped Captain Cojo on the arm just as he stepped out onto the airlock's ledge and looked down at the gray, cloudy surface of Khor-Wa far below. "Something's wrong," Frank said.

  Vic could see S'bal struggling with the mask but not hear anything over the hissing air jetting into the lock. He adjusted his own mask and pressed against the walls to make his way back to the door. "What are you doing?" he hollered.

  "I'm not doing this!" S'bal cried out.

  "It's too late for that. "We're going to miss our window to jump if you don't jump now!"

  "I'm not jumping you jackhole! That's the point!"

  Monster shouted up the corridor toward the cockpit, "The fish isn't jumping!"

  "Figures," Buehl said, shaking his head in frustration. He brought up the ship's stasis display and wrapped his hands around the controls. "It won't be pretty!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Tell me if he goes willingly."

  In the airlock, Vic swallowed his frustration and said, "It's easy. All you do is step off the edge and let yourself descend. The chute does all the work for you. Even if you pass out, you'll just drop to the ground gentle as can be. Come on."

  S'bal slapped the captain's hands away viciously and said, "I'm not going."

  "Okay," Vic said. "I tried to do this nice." He snatched S'bal by the shoulder straps of his parachute and yanked him forward, driving a knee up into the Cryndian's gut. The fish snapped back up and clawed for Vic's face, slapping him with a greasy webbed hand.

  Vic cursed at the sting and the slime on his skin and grabbed one of S'bal's dangling earrings and tore it free, sending dark red trickles into the creature's gills. S'bal cried out in pain and clutched his neck, looking down at the blood in disbelief. Vic grabbed him by the shoulder straps and braced his foot against the airlock, using it to launch himself and the fish away from the door. S'bal stumbled backwards as he and the captain spun around, both of them vying to overpower the other.

  Frank tapped his watch, "It's time to go!"

  At that moment, Buehl heard Monster bellow, "Dump them!" He jerked the ship's controls sideways, sending the Samsara up on its left side at a forty-five degree angle. Inside the airlock, S'bal screamed aloud as the floor vanished beneath them. He tumbled past the others into the vast nothingness of space until he was falling faster than he could scream.

  Monster ran into the cockpit and activated the console in front of his chair. A grid of Bertram's stratosphere materialized on the screen, showing three glowing dots dropping toward the planet's surface. "Rate of descent approaching seven hundred miles per hour," he said.

  Buehl squinted at his screen that showed charts for the captain, Lieutenant Kelly and the Cryndian. "I'm not sure what S'bal's respirations are supposed to be, but it's off. I think he's passed out."

  "Good, he won't be able to interfere with the chute."

  "No. Something's not right. He's not getting enough oxygen." Buehl pushed the button and said, "Control to Captain Cojo."

  The response was crackled, "Go ahead Control."

  "Confirm status of asset."

  Frank looked up at the same time the captain did, both of them taking their eyes off the fast approaching ground to see that S'bal's eyes were closed and his small green tongue was lolling out between his lips.

  "Is he dead?" Vic shouted.

  "Negative, but he's not getting enough air. You still have seven minutes of descent. He might not make it."

  They were upside down, arms pinned to their sides by the vortex of wind. In moments, their chutes would open and the three of them would drift apart, too far out of reach to render assistance. "Suggestions?" Vic said.

  Frank forced himself to turn so he could see S'bal better. He struggled to raise his hand and point at the Cryndian's gills, "Maybe he's losing air through the gills? Can we plug them?"

  "Thirty seconds until chutes deploy," Monster's voice crackled over the mask's radio.

  "Dismantle S'bal's chute," Vic said.

  "What?" Frank shouted.

  "Dismantle the chute!"

  Monster looked across the cockpit at Buehl and smiled, "It's about to be raining fish."

  "The chute's disabled, Captain," Buehl said. "I hope you know what you're doing."

  Vic scrambled through the air to grab S'bal, lunging with his hands and feet until he finally managed to latch on tight enough to pull the fish's limp form close. He grabbed S'bal's long neck in a headlock with both arms, covering as many of the gills as he could.

  "Chute's deploying," Monster said.

  The snaps holding their backpacks shut popped open and Vic could hear fabric and long lines of cord hissing out as they released into the air. Vic bore down as hard as he could, squeezing around S'bal's neck tight enough to choke a man.

  Suddenly, their chutes popped open with enough force to jerk them backwards, spinning Vic around in the air so hard he felt the bones in his spine pop as they straightened and realigned. He had S'bal in an unwieldy clutch that included his arms around the fish's neck and his legs wrapped around one of his feet. Eventually, their descent slowed and both of them swayed in the air,

  Buehl's voice came through the speakers in the mask's ear straps, "His breathing's stabilized, Captain. Just don't let go of him."

  "No kidding," Vic grunted, straining to keep hold of the Cryndian. "How much longer till we enter the atmosphere?"

  "Touchdown in two minutes," Monster replied.

  The rooftops of Khor-Wa were visible now, thousands of interstellar transmitters with long, spiky antennas that only seemed to grow longer and sharper as they descended. Frank pointed down at a vacant lot behind one of the buildings and said, "Aim for that."

  "Thrusters engaging," Monster said.

  Vic felt the backpack shudder and two long cylinders emerged, releasing fiery jets of air in spurts that slowed their descent rapidly. "This fish is freaking heavy," Vic grunted, blinking tears of sweat out of his eyes.

  The jets on the backpack sputtered from the increased weight of both bodies and gave out completely five feet above the ground. Vic cried out as they fell and did his best to land them, but wound up rolling sideways and landing directly on top of S'bal. The fish let out a burst of air from his stomach and groaned pitifully, his rubbery flesh rippling like a waterbed. Frank's jetpack let him down softly on the other side of the lot and as Vic staggered to his feet, Frank lifted his mask and shouted, "You guys okay?"

  Vic tore off his own mask and wiped the sweat from his face with his bare hand, casting off droplets of water like a windshield wiper. "Never better," he groaned. He kicked S'bal in the leg and said, "You still alive?"

  The gills along the side of the creature's neck flittered as he sucked in air. Finally, he raised a webbed han
d and groaned for help. Vic bent over and tried to catch his breath, ignoring him.

  Frank gathered up his chute and dragged it across the lot toward them, his baggy pants swishing together as he walked. "What a great start to this op, Captain. I'd say this is a portent of all the excellent things to come."

  "You saved me, you saved me," S'bal sputtered as he pawed for Vic to help him get up.

  Vic kicked him away in disgust, "I should fry you into fish sticks for that stunt."

  "Even if he'd jumped on his own it wouldn't have changed the fact that he couldn't breathe," Frank said. "That wasn't on him, it was on us."

  Vic unzipped his baggy flight suit and threw it on the ground at Frank's feet. "Fine. Since you're so in love with him, you two can get the gear cleaned up. I'm gonna recon."

  Frank extended his hand down to S'bal to help him up, hoping that when he pulled, nothing of the creature tore off.

  Vic hurried behind a solar-powered trash compactor at the mouth of the alleyway. Small cubes of green matter no bigger than shoe boxes were stacked neatly at the bottom of the bin, waiting to be picked up. One of the shopkeepers entered the alleyway just as Vic arrived and tossed a bag of waste into the compactor's gullet and the machine rumbled, chewing and grinding and incinerating until a fresh green rectangle of leftover material slid out of the bottom to join the others. Vic opened the case on his belt and popped the small black ear buds into his ears. It took the units a moment to adjust, filtering out the ambient noise of the trash compactor and the busy street just beyond.

  Heavy breathing filled his ears the same as if someone were huffing straight into them. He heard S'bal say, "Is he gonna take all day, or what?"

  "Oh, I'm sorry, am I not moving fast enough for you guys?" Vic said.

  "Are you ready for us, boss?" Frank said.