Deadly Planet (Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Book 2) Read online

  “Just one thing. I think it may be a mistake to say every single inhabitant has vanished. In the southern hemisphere there are many mountainous areas. If we searched every square inch, we might find a few natives. There even might be a few left on this continent, hidden away.”

  “Hiding from what?” I said.

  “I don’t know yet,” Altamonte said. “But hiding from something, I think. Although that’s only a random guess. There’s little empirical evidence for any theory whatsoever.” He shook his head. “Strange place. Never seen anything like it.”

  “Neither have I.”

  “But this is a big planet, about 15 percent bigger than Earth so the natives, if there are any, would have plenty of places to hide, and I assume you don't have the men to search every inch of it.”

  “You're right about that.”

  “Something, clearly though, devastated the population.”

  “Yes.”

  “Give me one or two more days. I have a hunch. Maybe in a day or so we’ll have an adventure.”

  “OK.”

  He saluted and left.

  “Ego the size of the orb of Jupiter,” Astrid said.

  “Yes, but he has an intelligence to match his ego. He is good in what he does.”

  “Logan, he’s more trouble than he’s worth.”

  “Not in this case,” I said.

  CHAPTER 4

  I’m not a morning person so I don’t make decisions before about ten. Actually, I prefer making decisions in the middle of the afternoon but sometimes fate doesn’t allow that. I was still drowsy and drinking my second cup of coffee when Altamonte walked into the office and briskly saluted. He looked chipper. I frowned. If there’s one thing I don’t like early in the morning, it’s chipper. I told him to be at ease. Then he hit me with his request.

  I frowned and took another large gulp of the coffee.

  “You want to take an expedition where?” I said.

  “The North Pole. Or close to it. Is your little holograph still operational?”

  “It is, but this time of the morning I’m not.”

  I flicked a button and the holographic globe of Jardoval popped up. It spun slowly in the air. Our camp was designated by a tiny red spot. Altamonte tapped it with his finger.

  “We’re right here.” He moved his finger north until it touched a blue spot. “I want to go up here, establish another camp and look around.”

  “I assume you have a good reason for doing this.”

  “Yes.”

  I waited for an explanation but he stayed silent. Which didn’t improve my mood.

  “OK, Ed, would you like to share?” He wore a huge smile. “You’re a morning person, aren’t you Ed?”

  “Yes, when my feet hit the floor I’m wide awake.”

  “I can see that.”

  “OK, now that we have that settled, back to sharing. Why do you want us to freeze to death?”

  He tapped the blue spot again. “I may be able to find you a few native inhabitants of Jardoval.”

  “They preferred cold climates?”

  “I know you are being sarcastic, sir, but the answer to your inquiry may be yes. Yes, they did. It’s the reason they preferred cold climates that interests me. It could be the key to the mystery of this planet.”

  I swallowed some more coffee. “OK, I assume you know what you’re doing.”

  He gave a high-beam smile. “I appreciate your confidence, sir.”

  “How many people do you need?” I said.

  “About two dozen. We may not have to stay for a long time though. We’ll need drills and digging equipment. We may have to cut through some ice. But we have robots for that. At least they can help.”

  I nodded. “OK, we’ll take off this afternoon. Give the coordinates to Captain Hanson. He will pilot the craft we travel on. Are you sure we can find some native residents there?”

  “I think there’s a pretty good chance of it, sir.”

  “Alive or dead?”

  “That remains to be seen, sir.”

  “OK, I’ll give the order.”

  He saluted. As he walked out, Carmen Hildago knocked and walked in. Altamonte jumped aside and gave her a wide berth. She frowned and possibly growled at him. I say possibly because my five senses aren’t working at 100 percent before noon.

  He scurried out. Carmen jerked her thumb toward him.

  “Sir, can I---”

  “When the mission is over, Carmen. Until then I need him alive and in good health.”

  “Guy has an ego the size of the orb of Jupiter.”

  “You’ve been talking to Astrid, haven’t you?”

  “Yes, we agree on many things, sir. Our views of the major are very much the same.”

  “Fine, but keep control of yourself until we finish the mission. The major has enormous shortcomings but has enormous talent and ability too. Actually, we say the same thing about you, without the shortcomings.”

  She laughed so hard it rattled my teeth.

  CHAPTER 5

  Bits of snow bombarded the ship’s window. They smacked on the plastic, exploded but then another volley came from the dark, roiling clouds. A distant roar sounded, as if a commander was yelling at his troops to charge. I appreciated that, in spite of the snow bullets and the 40 mile winds, the ship didn’t shake. It hummed slightly as it eased through the skies, seemingly impervious to the weather and winds. The pilot didn’t seem concerned at all, which I took to be a good sign. Daylight dimmed but I could still see vast stretches of the white Arctic. Miles and miles of snow and ice. Barren, cold and ugly. No animals roamed about. Too cold I thought. All the men and women had on their thermal suits, which could protect down to a temperature of -110 degrees. Not that I distrusted the manufacturers but I didn’t really want to test that theory. The temperature down below wasn’t too bad, for an Arctic region. Only about minus 40.

  “Destination is about ten miles ahead of us,” Hanson said.

  “Can you land in the storm?” I asked.

  “As storms go, this isn’t too bad. I’ve seen much worse than this. Flown in much worse than this. It would be no problem, but there is a clearing in about five miles. We should be landing in good weather.”

  “’Good’ in this case being a relative term.”

  “It’s only about forty below, sir. Temperatures up here can get a hundred and forty below easily. We’re in a balmy climate for the North Pole.”

  “I’m a native of Florida. To me, forty degrees is cold, much less forty below zero. Why couldn’t we deal with a problem on an island planet?” I realized Altamonte was wondering the same thing. Jamaica Two probably looked good to Ed about now.

  The pilot lowered the ship and reduced the velocity. The snow eased and began delivering sniper fire instead of a machine gun volley. As we lowered, the rain and snow disappeared. There wasn’t much of a landing strip. In fact, there was no landing strip at all. Just a vast area of white. That didn’t seem to disturb the pilot.

  He flicked a switch.

  “We will be landing in about three minutes. Please adjust your seats. We should be coming in rather smoothly but, just in case, buckle up. I hope all of you like cold weather.”

  He was true to his word. When landing, the ship bumped twice in the snow then settled down. I contacted the major.

  “Ed, send the robots out so they can start construction immediately. We can sleep in the ship tonight and tomorrow head for our temporary barracks. It looks clear now but can’t expect that to continue.”

  “Yes, sir. Our weather estimates are we should be seeing rather mild weather for the next three to four days. The next big storm should sweep after the fourth day.”

  “I trust we will be long gone by then. Have you pinpointed the sites you want to check?”

  “Yes, I have. They’re only about two miles from here.”

  CHAPTER 6

  The high-decibel whine of laser drills set nerves on edge. A steady stream flowed from a block of ice as the
red, fiery lasers sliced into it. Small chunks fell to the ground. The lasers turned the snow to slush and even our military boots couldn't keep the freezing water from soaking our socks. The slush changed almost immediately back into ice. Droplets and slivers of ice spit back from the drilling and splattered our winter jackets and goggles, clouding my vision.

  We were six hundred miles north of our command post.

  I turned my back to the drilling and wiped away the water. My eyes focused on a smiling Astrid, goggles on but her blue Eskimo hood partially down.

  “I like cold weather,” she said. “It's invigorating.”

  “No, it's not,” I said. “It's just cold. This is not just cold, this is freezing. Sub-freezing.”

  “You were right, though, to fly up here. We have found frozen remains.”

  “Yes, we have actually found some dead people. Ordinary that wouldn’t be a big achievement but on this planet I’ll take it as a success.”

  Astrid tapped her rifle. “But on the plus side there is nothing hunting us and nothing attacking us. It’s akin to a holiday.”

  “When I think of holidays I think of five-star hotels, room service and plenty of other amenities. I think of beaches and golf courses and fine restaurants and high quality wines. That’s a holiday. This is just an incredibly cold spot on a routine planet.”

  “OK, be a grouch,” she said.

  I turned over toward Altamonte. He had knelt down and peered at a fleshly specimen of a Jardoval native. The body was solidly encased in a second block of ice.

  “Not as primitive as my original guess,” Altamonte said. “Clearly not what we would call a stone age man back on Earth. He could fit into the Mayan culture or any number of Native American tribes circa 1750 or maybe even 1850.”

  “Doesn't look like he had enough protective clothing.”

  “He didn't. He had pelts, leggings, animal skins around him but not enough to protect him from this kind of weather.”

  As if on cue, the wind howled and tossed snow flurries our way. Ice slivers mingled in with the snow. They slapped our blue jackets with a splat every time they hit. The whine of the drills continued in the background.

  “It doesn’t appear they had much technology,” I said.

  “They didn’t, at least we haven’t found any yet. I’m guessing they had no knowledge of science. Probably had lived a rural, rustic life for centuries, maybe more.”

  “At least we found some remains,” I said.

  Altamonte dug his dark glove into the Jardoval snow and studied it, as if it were tea leaves and he could foretell the future by looking at the jagged shapes.

  “But they don't tell us a lot. We've found about a half a dozen bodies, all died by freezing. Their deaths reveal nothing about what happened to the rest of the natives.” He tossed the snow aside. “But when I get back to headquarters I want to show you something.”

  “Can we head back? Have you found everything you need?”

  He stood up and brushed some snow off his snow mask. “I think we have stayed as long as we need to. But he trip was worthwhile.”

  “Good, I’m tired of being cold. And what exactly did we learn up here?”

  “For one, although there are few artifacts on the planet to indicate life, we’ve learned there was a native race here. Primitive and rural perhaps, but a race. And we reinforced the belief that we shouldn’t allow any colonists here until we find out what happened to the natives.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Altamonte's lab facility back at headquarters was a bit cramped because he had computers and screens all over the room. I sipped coffee as he dashed between machines, punching in numbers or words. He pointed toward a blank screen on the wall. The screen flicked and displayed a map of the northern continent of Jardoval. Altamonte narrowed the scope to a six hundred mile radius of where the camp was located. To the north, the green plain wavered and became a light blue and then a deeper blue in the farthest region.

  “Frankly, Ed, I've never been much for topography,” I said.

  He used a pointer to poke at the blue sections of the map. “Even up here we only found a few bodies. The ice is retreating, a process that began possibly fifty years ago. But look at this. Following the trails, this is the migration of several groups of this planet's indigenous tribes.”

  Several red lines appeared on the map. Altamonte turned to me. “Does anything appear strange to you?”

  I was still shivering from our arctic sojourn so I was tempted to shrug and say no.

  Then the red lines caught my attention.

  “The ice moved in from the north, from the polar regions,” I said.

  “Yes.”

  “So the migration should have gone south, to warmer locales. But your lines have three separate tribes going north, into the freezing climate.”

  “Yes. Odd, isn't it?”

  “Darn right it is. I assume you have ruled out stupidity as the reason they headed north.”

  “Yes. I don't think they were suicidal or stupid. In fact, and this is a supposition and I have no hard evidence to back it up but I suspect…” he tapped the end of the three red lines with the pointer. “…these were the most intelligent of Jardoval races.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, we have other trails going south, numerous ones. But I think these three are… Let’s call them tribes, who were intelligent and wise. They took a gamble, what I’m guessing was a very good gamble, but may have lost. The cold was too much for them. There’s also something else that’s important here…” He tapped the map again with the pointer.

  “You’re going to have to tell me Ed, because I’m not picking up anything.”

  “The three red lines, Major. They designate the travels of three tribes. They headed north hoping for sanctuary but they didn’t know the weather would get as savagely cold as it did. They were not equipped to survive in Arctic climates. But you notice they didn’t return. They didn’t head back to their previous camping areas. They stayed. They stayed to face death.”

  I blinked. “I see your point. When they found out it was too cold for them why didn’t they retreat south and get to a warmer climate? And you say you think these were the most intelligent and wise of the Jardoval races.”

  “Yes, that’s my hunch.”

  “The map doesn’t seem to back you up, Ed.”

  “Oh, I think it does. Let’s think of an explanation, a logical explanation for their behavior. My tribe is facing death by freezing. There is a chance the weather will ease down and I might find some shelter. But why would I risk extinction up here, with only a slim chance of survival?”

  The thought hit me like a snowball thrown by a fastball pitcher.

  “Because I and my tribe were also facing death down below. We didn’t travel south because our enemy, whatever it was, was down there. But our enemy might not be in the north. If we could survive the winter, we’d be safe, or at least safer than we would in the southern lands.”