Xeno Xoo Lost Chapter 5: Crypsids Hit The Town

The earsplitting alarm continued to rise and fall as they quickened their pace. The central agora had all but emptied except for a few stragglers whose stubby legs could only bear them along so fast.

“The wardengate’s overrun!” one shouted.

“How many?” Denk asked, but didn’t receive an answer.

The sound of blaster fire echoed through the massive chamber as a ring of men in red uniforms attempted to contain whatever horrors had gotten inside. Following at a trot, Geddy drew his PDQ and Oz her blades. Voprot, who only had to walk to keep up with Denk, removed the electric whip from its hook on his belt and held the coil tightly in his giant hand.

“Those are the wardens,” Denk explained, jutting his chin toward them.

As they neared the last of the four colossal pillars that held the city together, the sight of a dozen wardens, all dressed in red, filled their vision. They’d formed a perimeter around a cluster of the black, dog-sized insects, which were backed up nearly to the beefy-looking gate set into the stone. A couple of them were firing, but only at the ground. A couple of the crypsids tried to climb up the wall, but their spiny legs couldn’t gain any purchase in the rock.

“Where are the barriers?!” someone yelled.

From ten meters back of the line, Geddy scanned the scene. The Durandians only came up to his waist. A short stack of crypsids would come eye to eye with them. A third could just hop right over them and head for the main part of the city. Every world had some version of ants, and as far as he knew, they were great cooperators.

— They’re going to go over.

— Yes, they are.

“Spread out!” Geddy yelled to his team, and they fanned out to provide a second line of defense. “Doc, Ehrmut, stay back!”

The two Ehrmut backed up, though not as far as he would’ve liked. Voprot activated the whip, which crackled blue with electricity. He laid it out behind him, ready to strike. Oz lit up her energy blades, which sizzled with power. Denk, Jel, and Geddy drew their blasters.

He still didn’t want to put the kid in harm’s way, but that wasn’t his decision to make. It never was.

“Nothing gets by us,” Geddy reminded everyone.

“Watch your line of fire, boys,” Oz cautioned.

“What are we doin’, Chief?” asked one of the wardens.

“Just hold them here a bit longer!” answered one of the older men, a blaster bolt singeing the ground in front of a crypsid as it lunged toward him. “Where are my damn barriers?!”

Geddy wouldn’t have bothered with barriers. One or two pulls of the PDQ’s trigger would take care of it, but the Durandians weren’t going to just slaughter the crypsids. One or the other had to make a move.

A young warden holding a small rifle at his hip spotted them and shouted over his shoulder, “What the … This doesn’t concern you, Denk! Just let us do our–“

“Look out!” Geddy cried.

Whether they sensed weakness on the perimeter or simply became too frightened, the inevitable happened. Half the crypsids lumped themselves into a pile, and the other half started leaping right over the hapless wardens. A couple fired wildly in the air as the creatures scampered over the perimeter and skittered in a frenetic zigzag motion toward the big gaps between their half-assed second line. The first one came right at Geddy, who blew it to ashes just as it raised its big, hooked forelegs to rip him open. Some of the dust got in his mouth.

A second one tried to scamper between Voprot and the wall. His arm came forward in a blur, and the whip encircled the bug as it leapt. One backward sweep of his arm and the crypsid fell into two smoking pieces.

Oz swiped at one to her right, between her and Voprot, but it hopped over her blade and passed directly over her as it made for the wide-open space behind them. She whirled and threw one of the blades at it. It impaled the crypsid as it ran, and it skidded to a stop on the dusty rock, dead.

“Barriers!” shouted someone from behind them. “I have the barriers!”

A man came running with a toolbox in his hand. He went between Oz and Voprot and breathlessly stopped behind the front line, which still managed to contain the last few crypsids.

One of the wardens broke ranks to help and knelt beside the toolbox, removing two force-field generators similar to Oz’s makeshift prison cell. Each took one of the black boxes and darted to either side of the semicircular containment line, inching their way a bit closer to the frightened pod of snapping crypsids. Once they were set, the two men activated the fields, forming translucent green walls that knitted together as they met in a V shape, trapping the creatures tight to the wall.

Slowly, the men in the line lowered their weapons, panting with relief. Sensing a shift, a couple of the crypsids tried to leap through the barrier, only to be repelled by a sharp crackle of power.

Geddy holstered the PDQ and looked around. No one had been injured and five angry crypsids were dead. Five of countless thousands. Oz went to pull her blade out of the one she greased and knelt to study it.

Only then did the alarm finally shut off. Looking back toward the main part of the cavern, people who had taken refuge in their dwellings had begun to emerge and see the aftermath. Napthar came striding toward them with his retinue from the Ministry, their faces knotted in concern.

“What happened?” demanded the Minister.

Ingo stepped away from the now-unnecessary line and brushed past Geddy and Denk to meet him, painting Denk’s face with a look of pure contempt. “Our best guess is that the wardengate wasn’t secured properly.”

Napthar noted the crypsids behind the force-field enclosure and the dead ones on the ground. “Is it secured now?”

“Yes, Minister.”

He pointed at the crypsid remains. “Remove the dead immediately.”

Ingo repeated the order to a pair of younger wardens who had made their way over. They would’ve preferred to stop and gawk at their alien visitors, but they ran over to a supply closet near the vault-like wardengate.

Drs. Tardigan and Krezek joined them just as the order was given. Krezek explained, “Dead or injured crypsids release an alarm scent. It sends them into a frenzy.”

“Makes scents.” Geddy threw Oz a wink. She threw back a classic eye roll.

The two wardens arrived with enormous silvered bags and gloves, and started picking up what was left of the creatures. Geddy glanced down at his jacket and pants, which were covered in gray dust, and grimaced.

“Hey, I uh … might’ve had my blaster on too high a setting …”

Ingo stepped in front of him, the envious astonishment evident in his expression. “What kind of weapon is that?”

“The kind that leaves no doubt whether the thing you shot is really dead.”

He gave his head a shake as though to remind himself of his duty. “Take off your clothes.”

“But we just met,” Geddy protested.

Napthar stepped in. “I’m afraid we must insist, Captain Starheart.”

Ingo pulled back. “Starheart … you must be the captain of Denk’s garbage ship.”

His eyes fluttered as he undid his holster. “I’m not sure I like the pejorative tone, but yeah, that’s me. You’re Ingo, right?”

“That’s Deputy Warden Boutmort to you, topsider,” he corrected.

Geddy removed the PDQ from the holster and handed the empty holster to him. He bent down and picked up one of the bags and slipped it inside.

“The gun, too.”

“Eat a dick.”

Denk chortled, earning an acid glare from Ingo.

“Geddy …” said Oz.

“No way. Wipe it down, spray it with air freshener, do what you need to do, but it stays with me.”

Ingo bristled, but Napthar stepped in. “It’s fine, deputy. Clean the weapon here.”

— Where will you put it?

— I know where I’d like to put it.

He removed his pants, boots, his beloved NASA jacket, and his shirt, and reluctantly handed them to Ingo. “Anything happens to that jacket, you and I are gonna have a real problem.”

The little man gave him a patronizing look. “We’ll take care of it.”

“You want my underwear, too?”

“No.” He sealed the giant bag and went to check on the others’ progress. The remaining bits of crypsid had been swept clean. He handed one of them the bag with Geddy’s clothes, and they slung them over their shoulders, carrying everything off.

— How do you seemingly always end up in your underwear?

— That’s a great question.

The sound of entrapped crypsids bouncing off the force field walls had only grown during the cleanup operation, the bizarre-looking insects  constantly hurling themselves against it.

“Voprot kill rest?” asked the lizard in his flat basso profundo, anxiously jangling his coiled whip.

“Not now, big fella,” Geddy replied. Voprot’s hopeful expression fell.

Napthar’s eyes met each of them. “Are you all okay?” They nodded. “Thank you for intervening. The wardens will take it from here. In the meantime, I suggest you rest up and have something to eat before tonight’s meeting. I suspect it will be very … energetic.” He turned to Ingo. “Carry on, Deputy. I expect a full incident report by that time.”

Ingo nodded. “Of course, Minister.”

“C’mon,” said Denk. “You guys must be starving.”

He meandered back toward the main part of the city as Geddy and the others fell in behind him.