This story was inspired by a recent collaborative LEGO project I did with my siblings. I enjoyed caricaturing our personalities for the story.

Jaydie was late to lunch as usual and H.O threw a sandwich at her.  “You missed the briefing,” he said.

“No one told me it was an important one,” Jaydie said, deftly catching the sandwich as it floated through the hatch.

“You’re supposed to be at ALL the briefings,” said Bronth, lazily stretched out on the roof, sucking a straw.  “Also this one was actually important.”

“Sorry, decided getting the ship’s reserve air condensers back up and running was more critical.  You’ll have to fill me in.”

“Well,” Bronth said, sitting up and flipping his holographic visor down over his face, “when the meeting started we were at T minus two hours of landing on Craxis L.  Now it’s T minus forty-three minutes.”  He touched the right of his visor and swiped, looking for the first slide.

“Craxis L?  Krancore owned, isn’t it?”

“Krancore owned,” Bronth nodded.

“Doesn’t Krancore usually work with Aegis?”  Jaydie asked.

“Not anymore,” H.O. said smugly.  “After Parute last week we are now the heroes of terraforming.”

“Really?  I didn’t think Parute went that well,” Jaydie said.

“It didn’t.  Don’t listen to H.O.  He just likes it when he gets to leave craters behind.”  West Alia looked up from her spot at the control panel.

“We came out of that place in a cloud of blue Limium smoke, you all in the ship and me swinging along behind, popping holes in the obnoxious gators that wouldn’t let us do our job,” H.O. bragged.  “It got televised from Station Alpha to Stroid 764.  It was gorgeous.”

“Well back to Krancore,” Bronth said.  “They usually do work with Aegis, but Aegis refused to go in on this one, I’ve forgotten why.  The mission’s pretty straightforward.  Aegis planted Craxis thirty years ago and these days it’s one of Krancore’s biggest rice exporters, but on-planet farmer units show unusual plant-based biological activity on the wetland fringes.  So Krancore wants some samples of the flora, especially anything you wouldn’t expect on a rice planet.  Just gotta get in, get samples, get out.  We do this job well, Krancore might be bringing us their next job.  If not, they might go back to Aegis.”

“Sounds simple,” Jaydie said.

“There is a hitch.  Craxis is in a Stroid belt, so this baby”—he slapped the ship’s side lovingly—“and I will have to wait outside.  And you three will have to barcloud in.”

“So not so simple.”

“Aw, barclouding’s not so bad,” H.O. shrugged.  “Did it once.  The dangers are exaggerated.  Stay tight on the bar, watch out for meteors.  You’re good.”

Jaydie stared at him.  “I used to barcloud for a living,” she said.

“Oh.”

“That’s how I lost my left arm.”

“But you have your left arm,” West Alia said.

“Only ‘cause I got it back again.”

“Oh—I remembered why Aegis wouldn’t go in,” Bronth said.  “The Stroid belt around Craxis has an ionic barium ring.  You can’t take an Ava shield through it.  That doesn’t matter to you, you’ll be barclouding in anyways.”

Jaydie frowned.  “You can run an Ava shield through ionic barium just fine.  Who told you that’s why Aegis wouldn’t take it?”

“Krancore said so.”

Jaydie shook her head.

“T minus thirty-eight minutes,” West Alia said.  “Here’s where we rev up the barclouds.”

“All right,” Bronth said.  “Remember, get in, get the flora, get out.  You’ll be taking all the samples, West?”

West Alia nodded, double checking the contents of her instrument case and scrolling at a breakneck pace through pages of her holographic clipboard.

“H.O., your job is protection.  We would rather not leave craters, so try to keep it low profile.”

“Low profile,” H.O. said, slapping his plasma blaster.

“Jaydie—if anything goes wrong, you’re there fix it.  Now I’m off to the controls.  You three will be jumping in T minus fifty seconds.”

Jaydie buckled on her tool belt and strapped her handheld power saw to her wrist.  She slammed her visor shut and adjusted the airflow.  “Y’all ready for the Stroids?” she asked.

“Ready to hit some rocks!” H.O. replied, and his voice crackled clearly through the comms system on her helmet.

West Alia spun the knobs on the ship hatch and the door flew open.

Bronth’s voice came over the ship loudspeaker.  “Jumping in 9… 8… 7…”

Jaydie gave her unit one last check.  Air?  Moisturizer?  G-suspension?  Comms was obviously fine, you could hear H.O. trying to whistle.

“4… 3… 2… 1!”

“Whooo!”  That was H.O., jumping feet first out of the ship, spinning wildly on his bar, shooting two aimless blasts into empty space.

West Alia was already lying flat on her bar, slicing toward the Stroid field.

Jaydie clicked her boots into position and followed her lead.

“So when did you barcloud for a living?” H.O. asked over the comms.

“Back during the Vengeance.  I planted Stroid mines.”

“The Peace put you out of a job?”

“Did free-lance repairs until West Alia offered me this,” Jaydie said, slapping the Wayland Terraformer badge on her speedsuit.

West Alia’s voice cut H.O. off before he could reply.  “You two might want to concentrate, my scanner is picking up a high ratio of meteors.”

Jaydie focused on the space ahead, where a belt of moving asteroids stretched between them and their destination, Craxis L.  She adjusted her trajectory slightly toward the left and seconds later went zipping past the first rock.

“Oh look, a comet!” H.O. said.  “Make a wish!”

“That was just a stroid,” Jaydie said.

“No, not that one, the other one,” H.O said.  “Oh ow!  I’m fine guys, I’m fine!”

“What happened?” West Alia asked.

“Just a pebble sized rock, nothing more,” H.O. explained.

“Trust your cloud and don’t try to steer yourself,” Jaydie advised.

“Entering the dust ring now,” West Alia said.

The dust ring was the most dangerous slice of any Stroid belt, and where many solo barclouders had lost their lives.  It was safer in a trio, because the momentum of the extra bodies created a slight field that acted as a dust shield, keeping the tiny particles from interfering with the barcloud sensors.  Jaydie, H.O., and West Alia sliced through the dust in close formation, swaying left and right around rocks that flitted past them like brown blurs.

“Sight contact on Craxis L,” Jaydie said suddenly.

“Evening out velocity,” West Alia announced.

“Bracing for landing,” Jaydie said.

“Wait what are the specs on this landing?” H.O. asked.  “Should I be ready for 3Gs or… oh… owww…”  He crashed noisily through layers of leafy trees, landing on his palms in a dirty swamp, ploughing through the mud and flipping over onto his back.  “Ohhh… that was at least 5.”

Jaydie and West Alia glided smoothly down next to him.

“Too bad we didn’t need dirt samples,” West Alia said.

“Consider it camo,” H.O. said.

Jaydie glanced at the sensor numbers on the inside of her visor.  “This planet’s got good air levels,” she said, flipping the helmet open and taking a deep breath.  “It’s been too long.”  She glanced from the swampy rice lands in front of her to the denser forest behind.

“Nice plant cover too,” West Alia said, taking off her helmet and tossing it on the ground next to her case.  “Good balance between the big oxygen producers and this rice.  Loads of water in this moist soil.  This planet must be worth a million.”  She brought out a core sampler and deftly screwed its three parts together.

“What I wanna know is why Aegis wouldn’t come in here,” Jaydie said.

“Maybe it really is the ionic barium,” H.O. said, switching his scanner on and starting to analyze threats.

“Maybe there are gators like on Parute,” West Alia suggested.  Her drill was biting through the nearest tree, a tall umbrageous jungle dweller.  In a minute she retrieved a long, pencil thin sample of wood.  She stared at it.

Jaydie froze.  “What?  What is it?  Is it infected?  Does it have a venom vein?  Is it an atmosphere pollutant?  What is it West?!  How are we gonna die?!?!”

“No it’s nothing.  Just counting the rings.  She’s 18 years old.  Big for her age.”

Jaydie blew a stream of air through her lips.  “Biologists,” she breathed.

“Jaydie!  I found something!” H.O. shouted from where he stood ten meters away, knee-deep in slimy water.

“What is it, a dead rabbit?”

“No man, it’s a human skull.”

“What?!?!”

“It’s been cracked in two,” H.O. said, wading back to the edge.  “It had a metal eye socket implant.  That’s what my scanner picked up,” he said.

“Isn’t it weird to find a human skull with an eye implant on a rice planet?” Jaydie asked.

“Yeah it is, isn’t it?  Makes you wonder what kind of unusual biological activity we’re talking about.  Oh well, none of our business.”

“How is it none of our business?”

“We’re just here to get plant samples, right?  Cracked skulls are irrelevant.  I wonder how this one happened.  Did he split his skull first, or was that a post-mortem accident?  What’dya think?”

West Alia’s drill was buzzing through another sample and she held up a hand for silence.  “Shut up, H.O.”

“I’m going by Soldier 12 for this job,” he said, tossing the skull recklessly behind him.

“Soldier 12?” Jaydie asked.  “Aren’t you the only one?”

“Yeah.  That’s how I got to pick my number.”

“Shut up, Soldier 12,” West Alia said, drawing her hand sharply across her neck.  She switched off the drill.  “Listen!”

From somewhere in the wetlands came vague sounds of popping bubbles.  Plop!  Plop!  Ssssuck!

H.O. shrugged.  “That’s nothing.  I was on a planet once with bubbles the size of spaceships.  I went through on a hover board.  Pricked ‘em like I was deflating balloons.  I needed so many kinds of showers after that.”

West Alia tore off her glove and laid her bare hand on the ground.

“What is it?” Jaydie asked.  “After the 18 year old tree I don’t wanna panic prematurely but… what is it?”

“It’s… vibrating,” West Alia said, her eyes glinting.

“Which means?”

“Something’s coming.  Something’s coming through the swamp,” she said.

“More like… the swamp is coming,” H.O. said, stumbling backwards and pointing to a seething mass rising from the water’s edge only feet from them.

“What in the…”

West Alia snapped her instrument case shut and jumped to her feet.  “Run!”

H.O. unslung his plasma blaster and took a shot at the rising shape of lichen covered matter forming at the edge of the wetland.  His blast ricocheted harmlessly from the monster.

“Man,” H.O. said, turning tail and running after West Alia and Jaydie.  “What is that thing?” he shouted.

“Unusual biological activity,” Jaydie panted, brushing through the undergrowth.

“It’s fungi,” West Alia said.

“It’s so big,” H.O. gasped, jumping sideways as a tree the beast hit fell in his direction.

“Try your lasers on it!” Jaydie exclaimed.

H.O. yanked a laser pistol from his pocket and trained it on the fungi.  “How’s this for size?” he shouted, slicing right through the center of the rock and dirt and lichen.

“You just doubled the fungi beats,” West Alia said.

“But they’re half the size!” H.O. gasped.

“Okay, plan B!”  Jaydie pointed through the trees.  “Every Krancore planet has an emergency bunker.  There’s ours.”

“I hope you know the entrance code,” West Alia panted, reaching the door and shaking it.

“I know all the entrance codes,” Jaydie said, hesitating at the lock panel.

“Well!”

“I just don’t remember which is which.”

“Hurry!” H.O. yelled, bursting through the trees with four separate quarters of the beast closing in behind him.

West Alia pushed Jaydie aside and swiped 234.  The lock clicked and spun and the door yielded to her push.

Jaydie jumped in and H.O. tumbled over her.  West Alia pulled him out of the opening, slammed the door shut, and punched the lock key.  “You’re welcome,” she said.

“What in the Milky Way is that thing?” H.O. gasped.

“Fungi possessed rock?” Jaydie guessed.

West Alia crossed the room to the bunker computers and dropped into a rolling chair.  “That’s a biological impossibility.  Fungi possession needs a live host.”

“What is it then?” Jaydie asked.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t like us,” H.O. said, cringing as the bunker vibrated with the blows of the beast’s fist.

West Alia threw her instrument case open and pulled out a recent sample.  “There’s something here that’s acting like a live host for that fungi.  How long before this place cracks, Jaydie?” she asked.

Jaydie looked up from the defense control panel by the door.  “The shield’s been damaged.  We’ll be doing good to get three more minutes out of it.”

“It’ll take me five just to isolate the problem,” West Alia snapped.

“I guess this is why Aegis wouldn’t come in here,” H.O. said, biting into a chocolate bar he’d found in the emergency food stash.

West Alia jumped from her seat.  “Aegis uses triphosphate sildoran to harden soil for rock beds!  I should have known.”

“What?”

“It’ll host possessive fungi like the one outside.”  She drummed her fingers on the bunker wall, then started scrambling through her case.  “At least we isolated the problem.”

“On the contrary, it’s breaking in to join us,” Jaydie said, jumping out of the way of a loosened chunk of cement that dropped from the roof.

“Keep it out a minute more, will you?  H.O., your blaster.  Soldier 12, whatever.  Give me your blaster!”

Jaydie flipped the wall panel in front of the shield generator open and yanked at the wires, trying to coax a little more life out of the damaged mechanism.

“I need a reagent,” West Alia exclaimed.

H.O. took another bite of his chocolate bar.

“Give me that!”

“Hey!”

“Give me the chocolate!”

“West!  H.O.!” Jaydie shouted.  “This beast’ll be in here any minute, get your act together!”

H.O. let go and West Alia tore off the wrapper.  She crushed the chocolate in her fist and crammed it into the barrel of H.O.’s plasma gun.

“That’s gonna be so bad to clean out,” H.O. growled.

“The shield’s down!” Jaydie yelled, and the next instant the bunker was filled with a grating sound of stone against stone as the fungi beast crushed the far corner to powder.

West Alia slung the gun to her shoulder and let fly, blasting out a wild dose of chocolate plasma.

The beast reared full height, towering for a second over the bunker.  Then it fell apart, raining in a shower of slimy pebbles.

H.O. grabbed his gun back.  “Are we done here?” he demanded.

“Another day, another Aegis disaster cleaned up,” Jaydie said.  “Figuratively speaking, I’d say the Wayland Terraformers have finished this job.”

H.O. slung the blaster back over his speedsuit and snapped his visor shut.

“Hold on, you’ll have to wait for me to retake my samples,” West Alia said.  “I blasted all the first ones at that beast.”

“Did you just… blast it with… everything?” Jaydie asked.

“Mm-hm.”

“And that worked?”

“Of course it worked,” said West Alia.  “A little bit of everything always works.”

Enjoyed the story? You might also have fun reading these other stories of mine: