Dawn of Procyon by Mark R. Healy

Author:Mark R. Healy [Healy, Mark R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure
Amazon: B01E0FKY5Q
Goodreads: 29613215
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 2016-04-06T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

PSD 29-213: 1551 hours

“That’s disgusting,” Landry said, staring at the thing sticking out of the sand. He was torn between watching the hand, or tentacle, or whatever it was, and keeping an eye on the receding form of the Argoni a couple of hundred meters away. From his prone position, he wriggled himself further away from the limb, eyeing it distrustfully.

Part of him wondered if there was an entire creature attached to it, lurking just beneath the sand, waiting for an unsuspecting human to wander close enough for it to snare.

“This specimen does not correspond to anything in my database,” HAIRI said.

“Is it . . . part of an Argoni? Or part of its ship, maybe?”

“We should extract the specimen for closer inspection.”

“Oh, we should do that, should we? Why don’t you do it?”

“I lack the physical components to perform such a task. If you were to insert my logic card into a Himura Prime droid chassis, I could do as you suggest.”

“Oh, a Himura Prime droid chassis, huh? Yeah, I think I saw one of those sitting behind that boulder over there.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“No, really—”

“This frivolity is pointless. You need to man up, Landry. Extract the specimen from the soil.”

Landry sighed. “So this is what rock bottom feels like. Being told to ‘man up’ by a piece of software.”

He glanced over toward the Toad, which was making its way up toward the ridge. He knew that he really needed to get moving if he wanted to search for the antenna while the Argoni was distracted at the wreck of the scout.

“Okay, here we go,” he said. He steeled himself, then crept forward. The limb was about the length of Landry’s forearm, sticking out of the sand at an acute angle. Although covered in dust and grit, Landry could see that its exterior was scaly and uneven, with tiny furrows clogged with sand. From its end drooped several ringed tubes, what Landry thought might have been tentacles.

Landry stopped just short of it, gathering up his courage, then reached out and slapped at it, pulling back like a fretful kitten investigating a new toy.

The thing wobbled but stayed rooted in the sand.

“That was weak, Landry. Try harder.”

“You really need to learn some manners, y’know?”

He moved forward again, then lunged and grabbed the limb, pulling at it as he moved back. It came free, spinning through the air for a moment before thudding back to the dirt.

“Well done,” HAIRI said.

It seemed that it was an arm, or a leg, or some kind of tentacle. Shorter than an average human arm, it looked as though it had been violently severed at one end, the flesh ripped and shredded into flaps. Landry looked over at the Argoni, making sure it hadn’t spotted him or begun to return, then crawled a little closer.

“There, satisfied?” Landry said.

“Most curious. This appears to be organic, but could not possibly be part of one of the Toads themselves.”

“Because their flesh decomposes so quickly.”

“Correct,” HAIRI said.

“And aside from that, it’s too small, and there’s no bony exterior like Toads have.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.