The Edge of the Map, Daniel Lucas [book club recommendations .TXT] 📗

the ship and get the hell out of here. Before they wonder what’s happed to these guys.” Said Bell

They quickly loaded the newest of the “Specimens” in to the ship so they could lift off of this planet before they find themselves hip deep in the aliens. As they loaded the aliens into the ship, they were found by an alien. They were looking in the right direction because the moment that it stepped out of the woods they saw it. They turned their weapons on it, it paid them no mind as it walked to the ship directly on the side where the “new” type was currently stored they looked at each other and shot him with tranquilizer darts at the same moment. It was rendered unconscious as they loaded him into a stasis pod usually used for human injured personnel; however they thought that it would hold him.
“Do you think that it will hold him?” Asked Redmen after he had finished modifying it so that it could not be opened from the inside.
“Did you do a good job as you normally do?” Asked Bell

“Of course I did, who do you think I am some sloppy civilian engineer?” Asked Redmen

“Then quit worrying about it they aren’t going to go anywhere they are good and stuck.” Said Bell “Lets go home I’m tired of looking at this ship.”

As they sealed the ship and finished the final steps in order to lift off they were attacked by several of the little aliens. They started to lift off when their radar told them that there was a large mass just ten meters behind their ship and getting closer. Just then they felt a bump shutter through the ship. They switched to the external cameras there they saw a huge thing holding on to the ship it was at least as tall as the ship it’s self.
“Damn it, it’s got us.” Said Redmen

“Try using the engines to give that thing a face full of jet fuel. Maybe then we will be able to blast the hell out of here.” Said Bell
Redmen then gave the engines full throttle and they successfully blasted off the planet they didn’t know that they had a guest that had decided to tag along with them.

"That could really have been bad." Said Bell As they jetted away from the planet they sent the message to the Admiral that they had got there specimen. As they proceeded away from the planet the ships alarms started to wail.

"Hull breech! Hull breech!" Sealing adjacent sections as the computer started to seal the sections. The display showed the aft section in red indicating that it was exposed to space.” What the hell is that?" Shouted Bell over the alarm claxon.

"There is a hull breech in progress in the engine section. It is now ten centimeters and growing. It is known why the hull breech is continuing to grow however there is similar DNA present in the hull breech as in the stasis pod." Said the computer.

“What the hell is it trying to say that the alien actually breeched our hull with its bare hands?” Asked Bell, as he furiously pounded on the key boards trying to find a solution to the hull breech. “Well it would seem so if the computer says it is detecting the alien DNA in the hull breech then we have to believe that there is DNA in the breech. It is possible that the DNA was spread in the area by our loading of the aliens that we brought on board. That could be what is throwing the sensors off. It would have to a major amount of materiel in the area for the sensors to be fooled like that.” Mused Redmen as he continued to work on the problem with the cameras. “Dam’ it I still can’t get us a view of the hull where it was breeched.”

“The video scanners are not sending us a picture there maybe some sort of power disturbance or they could have been damaged. Because I can’t get a picture but the computer says that they are functioning at top performance. The computer can’t get out of the loop that the broken cameras have put it in all the processors seem to want to do is focus on the exterior of the hull much further forward than the breech could have been.”
“Warning, Warning, Explosive out gassing in progress in the engineering spaces. Biological contamination in progress in the adjoining spaces. Prepare to evacuate those spaces the air lock doors will be closing in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four…” Warned the computer but, not in its usual voice it was the voice of the emergency systems transponder. “Will you shut that dam thing off it’s really getting on my nerves. All it wants to do is tell us the bad news it never has anything nice to say.” Complained Bell as he wiped heavy amounts of sweat off of his brow. He was trying very hard to find a way to see what was going on in the after part of the ship.
It finally hit him. “What the hell were we thinking we have all of those probes we can use one and it’s cameras to see what the hell is wrong with this bird.” Shouted Bell as the emergency systems began their warning again about the hull breech. As it soon as it had finished it’s first sentence Redmen managed to find the right sub routine and delete it’s programmed voice. “That’s better now how about that probe?” asked Redmen. They began to reprogram the probe to circle the ship the whole ship shuttered very hard as if it were struck by something large. They were thrown from their chairs by the violence of it.
“The hell was that!” Said Bell as they were trying to get up. The computer gave another shutter and then the gravity went offline they were floating, in spaces’ lack of gravity. They were floating when the computer gave another warning. “Warning, Warning, contamination of forward spaces progressing at a much more rapid pace than expected. There is a fifty percent possibility that the contamination will spread to the passenger sections in less the five minutes. At which time the contamination will be irreversible and the occupants will be infected with the contamination.” The computer alerted them. They looked at each other; Bell was the first to speck “That’s what I mean as to never having anything nice to say.” Redman laughed and said “Would you have been happier if it had wished us a good day after it told us that we were doomed?”
“No, but it could have been a little more somber about our impending doom that it was. It just was a bit to happy to tell us that we were going to die. We really need to figure out what the hell is going on back there after we get into our suits maybe that will slow down the contamination.” Replied Bell as he was headed towards the locker where the suits are stored.
“Let’s hope that they work better for us than they did for those poor saps Rodriguez and Wilson. They might have lasted four whole minutes.” Noted Redmen.
“More like two minutes and change if that thing in the pod gets lose too. I hope that the message that is sent out when we open these gets to somebody close. Otherwise we are going to be in a world of hurt because these suits aren’t really meant to last hours they are really only meant to last long enough for help to arrive when they were building the orbiting stations and help was only about ten minutes away at the farthest. Were like...”


“Don’t say it! I realize that were about three days away from the nearest help and that is extremely unlikely that they could get here in time even if they knew that we were here. However maybe we could jettison the aft sections and buy our selves some time before we become plant food.” Said Redmen as they were dressing in their suit there came a loud beeping from the com and Bell said “Now who could be calling at a time like this?” After putting the rest of his suit together he headed towards the com unit. Redmen said” Just let them leave us a message we’ll get back to them when we have the time.” “No we had better take it what if it’s publishers clearing planet telling us we won an all expense paid trip to some lush tropic paradise of nice ladies and nicer drinks with little umbrellas and coconut liquors.”
“True but be quick because that bulk head is likely to go at any moment and I don’t want to be the only one who is an appetizer for these overgrown weeds.” Said Bell
“True I wouldn’t want to miss that party for anything. Just hope that they don’t want to talk like you wife does that women can talk for hours.” Said Redmen.
Bell laughed that nervous laugh that you only hear on death rows and in sinking ships. “Just you wait; I’ll tell her you said that she’ll really let you have it.”
He didn’t respond he just looked at the screen as the dents in the door multiplied by leaps and bounds. Then Bell reached out his hand and grabbed a rifle fully knowing that using it in the ship would be a really bad idea. He really was out of ideas until he thought about the security doors, they would hold against the physical attacks but, the fungus would probably get through. That was okay because they had their suits and those would protect them from the fungus. He slammed his hand on the security button put there to protect the pilots that drove the huge space liners and the owners from hijacking.
He hit and the doors started to close but they got almost all the way closed when it stopped about three inches from the deck plating. That was better then nothing he supposed he would have to be careful so that if it did manage to get through the first set of doors that he would be clear if it tried to get to him through the gap in the door. He heard the door start to give way with a metallic scream of protest then he had to jump back because the creature tried to reach him from under the door he was barley able to get away in time. He then said “Hurry up will ya? This party has already started and you’re missing all the fun here."
“We may both be able to miss the party if I’m reading this right there is a ship out there. We may be able to get their attiuon maybe they will come and get us out of here? If they can see us that is.” Said Bell as he turned towards Redmen and saw the creature trying to get through the two inch gap in the floor and the door and said “You really should learn how to close hatches properly it could save you life one day.”
He reached up above the door and pulled the plating down from the ceiling and hit a leaver and the door shut all the way trapping the plants arm in the door then the weight of the door cut through the plants arm and slammed home against the deck. He then said “You must be getting old to have forgotten that one.” Then Redmen turned towards Bell and asked
“Well what was keeping you so long fearless leader.” They then went to