Charena brushed the spoor trail with her raspy tongue and tasted the presence of a native male spider. Up the hill, over the slime moss, she explored with her forward eyes trying to ignore the simultaneous view from the rear. The cantilevered legs attached to her obscenely large arachnoid body pulled her up the embankment with an ease unknown in her previous incarnation even though her right forward leg gave pain signals difficult to ignore.
Her quarry, not dissimilar in appearance from a terrestrial tarantula except that a spindly neck held his bulbous head away from his body and he sprouted twelve legs, sat stupidly waiting for Charena. He extended and withdrew a feathery tongue and clicked his mandibles together excitedly. Then, in a pattern that she had seen dozens of times, he scratched the ground with his pointed feet, slowly at first, then accelerated his dance until he looked like he would shake himself apart. She approached him gently, and he vibrated closer. He would be as easy as the others.
She rolled over onto her ample abdomen and displayed the zigzag yellow marking on her underside. He pushed up and down more rapidly, then he sprang upon her, human fashion, face to face, legs interlocking into legs. She opened her chitinous ova depositor with a click, and he inserted himself into her.
Charena felt the wet moss on her back, and she felt something hard, cold, and raspy penetrate her body. His head lolled in a drunken circle as he pulsed up and down, then she reached up for his thin neck with her sharp mandibles. It snapped off like a big black fruit from a tree.
Spider-woman, Charena, pushed herself up and shoved his still quivering body aside. The head rolled down the hill and into the valley and into the fog below. She rose and began to climb the valley rim. As she climbed higher it got easier, but her leg still hurt, and she felt weak. She looked with her posterior eyes over her thorax and saw the oozing body of her victim still pumping its life away.
When Charena reached the cliff overlooking the valley rim she felt pained and exhausted. Storm clouds blew from afar across the blue-green valley, and yellow sheet lightning illuminated the distant sky. The hair on her body tingled from the electricity, but she nevertheless extended a wire antenna from her thorax and activated the psycomm. She regretted not having a larynx because she wanted to scream, but screams did not translate well on the psycomm.
"Ravi," thought Charena over the psycomm, "this is Charena. I'm in trouble down here. I need to come back now."
# # #
Ravi Men took the call in the ops center. "Go ahead," she said. "But try to get a better spot. It's hard to hear you."
"Best I can do," thought Charena over the psycomm. "There's a storm. Lightning. Enough the weather. I'm hurting. Second right leg feels like it's broken. I'm tired too. I haven't slept yet. I don't know if these things sleep or what they eat."
"We don't know much about them either. I thought you would tell me. Maybe you should try to eat something. Close your eyes, rest." Ravi's voice echoed as though it came from a long metal tube. It didn't sound like Ravi at all.
"The eyes don't close, and the only thing I know they eat is each other after they've mated. How long can that go on?"
"Maybe you should try it."
"Ravi, I need to come back. Tell Peter I can't take another day on this planet."
"Have you tried the spider brain. It's still there, and it might have some instincts."
"I don't need instincts. I need pain relief. Let me talk to Peter. He'll understand."
"I'll tell him."
"Let me talk to him, please."
"Charena, you know Peter is a busy man. He has a whole world on his mind. But I'll tell him."
"Tell him it's urgent."
"Wait there. I'll tell him."
# # #
Ravi Men put down the psycomm onto the table with a solid snap and saw her reflection in its black surface. She needed another regen, no denying that, but the mission first.
Peter Du stood arms akimbo in his chamber espying the icy world far below with its blue-green temperate zone on the equator from the observation bubbles that bulged from the ship’s surface.
"Peter," she said, "I've got more bad news."
He turned to face her. He didn't look surprised.
"It's Charena," said Ravi. "She wants to come up."
Peter stuck his hands into the pockets of his scarlet trimmed blue tunic. He looked handsome with the silver beard, gray curly hair, and - regeneration be damned - she liked older looking men, father figures perhaps, because so few chose to look old.
"Hmm, Charena," he said impassively. "I thought she would make it."
"Peter, you knew she wouldn't."
"I left it to you to determine the risk." He stood there like a statue. Over Peter's shoulder Ravi watched the icy world with the greenish gash around its middle spinning in space.
"Damn it, Peter, you wanted me to take that risk."
"And Earth wants this planet before its ice age ends. What am I supposed to do?"
"Go back to Earth. I told you we could go back to Earth and get a fresh crew. The Inner Colonies would be okay too."
"That's fifty years. Then we'd be back where we started."
"Not if we hibernate."
"You didn't object this much after -"
"After you exempted me. I resent that. You know I would have gone."
"But you didn't."
"No, I didn't. I've had four going on five regens already, and Charena only had two."
"But she was an old two. What about the others?"
Ravi Men sucked in her breath, then let it explode with as much anger as she could with crossing the line of insubordination. "Peter, listen to me. I think we're going to lose them all. It's not the gens, but the transformation from humans to spiders is what's killing them."
"We had no choice."
"So, what do I tell Charena?"
"Tell she needs to do her job."
# # #
"I talked to Peter," Ravi said.
"Yes, what did he say?" Charena thought over the psycomm.
"He said to do the best you can."
"That's it? Did you tell him I'm hurting?"
"Yes. He knows it's a tough mission, but you’ll pull it off. He’s counting on you."
"Ravi, tell him I can't."
"Try to eat something, rest. You'll feel better."
Ravi, get me off of here, please."
"Charena, I've got work to do. Call me tomorrow if you're still having problems."
"Expect a call."
# # #
Charena reeled in the antenna. The short but intense storm had passed to the north; nevertheless in a few hours it would be dark and her human self felt like finding a place to hide. She tried to let her spider instincts guide her to see what she would do autonomously. At first she stood immobile, then, as Charena tried harder to blank her mind, she felt the legs flex slowly, then more rapidly until they all beat in a synchrony that she had not been aware of, and they were heading down into the valley. A ragged fern-like plant stood in her way. The spider paused, then hung the bad leg around the tough plant and pushed against it with all its weight. The leg snapped off with a painful jolt, but at least it stopped hurting.
Lower down she saw the body of the dead male. It revolted her, but her spider brain told her otherwise.
Her spider self felt better after eating, but her human self felt like vomiting. She tried not to think about what she had eaten.
When she reached the bottom of the misty valley the fog thickened up, but she was alerted by the spoor of a male. The hair on her body involuntarily bristled at the thought. She tracked the scent. Wet plant fronds brushed her black abdomen, and water ran in rivulets down her legs. She felt like an armored vehicle crashing, crushing, snapping through the thicket.
A few minutes later the brush cleared. She saw a pattern of yellow squares like a checker board on the ground. Her first thought was that this was of human construction, but she hadn't been briefed. She put aside her thoughts quickly when she saw sitting in the middle of the pattern a very large female. She was easily half again as large as herself, and definitely not a bioengineered, cybernetically altered spider analog.
She saw Charena.
Without giving Charena time to react she jumped the distance between them in one leap. Charena found herself staring into her cutting mandibles. Again she struck preemptively and lunged for Charena's neck. Instinct told her to retract her head and hop backwards, but she was not quick enough to avoid a grazing swipe that knocked one of her forward eyes out. The thing lunged again. Charena was quick enough this time and avoided the slashing jaws, but her back was up against a high stone wall. The beast stalked her with jerking, bouncing steps, snapping her jaws at each bounce. Charena began to climb up the stone wall backwards. As she climbed, the she-spider followed, but was unable to jump at her. Several body lengths up the wall her rear eyes saw a ledge. She extended her rear legs, hooked it with the sharp nails and pulled herself up. When she reached flat ground again she tried to assemble her legs under herself and run, but she felt the bite of the monster into her left front leg before she could escape. Charena poked a sharp tipped right leg into one of its eyes. The beast momentarily loosened up, but again jabbed like a boxer and vice gripped Charena's thorax-abdominal joint. Charena dragged herself and the she-spider along the high ledge overlooking the yellow checkered plane below. The beast gnawed at the body joint and it hurt terribly. Her spider brain didn't know how to break the deadly hold, but her human brain saw a watermelon sized rock on the ledge. She grabbed it between her two front legs, swung it high overhead, pulling her biting attacker with her, then brought it hard down against her black head. It split open, and red eyes floated out like strawberries on white yogurt.
Charena felt instant relief from the pain. Her enemy lay dead at her legs.
She scrambled down the wall and came back to the checkered plane. Then she saw why the female had staked out this territory.
An iridescent purple skinned male stood at the edge of the square. He looked particularly attractive, and was not the mousy brown that most were. Her ova depositor tingled involuntarily at the sight of him. She knew that she didn't have the energy to kill him; nevertheless she approached him slowly. When she got within two body lengths, he quickly retreated into an unseen opening in the ground. She did not follow.
Later, as the purple and yellow rays of the sky blended into the dark shadows Charena curled into a fuzzy black ball near the cold stone wall and tried to command her human brain to sleep until morning, but when it did, it dreamed ugly dreams.
# # #
The next day Charena called Ravi Men.
"Ravi, I've got to come back. I was almost killed by a large female."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Put me through to Peter. He needs to hear this from me."
"Can't."
"Why?"
"He knows."
"About the large female that almost killed me?"
"No. You aren't the only one having problems on the surface, but I'll tell him about the female."
"Why can't I talk to him?"
"He's working on a plan to deal with the problems."
"You've lost a few?"
"Yes, to be honest, we've had a few casualties."
"How many?"
"Three confirmed, but we won't know until it's time to pull everybody out. I'm sorry, but these wouldn't be the first on a mission like this."
"You almost had four. And what am I supposed to do stay here and kill males until - how long? I've lost track of time."
"A week or two. Can you hold on that long?"
"I'll try."
"Good. This planet is a top priority."
"I can't see why."
"I don't know either, to be honest, but it is."
"Ravi, there is one other thing. I saw some signs of a civilization down here. Nothing elaborate. Just some yellow rocks laid out in a geometric pattern. I know it sounds improbably, but suppose these spiders are more intelligent than we think? They look like arachnids, but their brains are considerably larger. I'm having some doubts that we should be trying to kill them off when they might be sentient beings like ourselves."
Ravi laughed. "Those spiders? I doubt it."
"Well, if not the spiders, then maybe something waiting for the ice to thaw out."
"I'll tell Peter about it."
"And you'll tell him I want to speak to him?"
"I told you already. There's nothing he can do."
"Ravi, tell me, but don't tell me what I don't want to hear."
"I think you already know."
"There's nothing that can be done?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Why?"
"Human to arachnid was apparently too much. It's not the bodies, its the brains. We can't reverse it. We tried already."
"Did you try to extract the brains and gen new bodies?"
"Yes, but the brains had fused. They were neither human nor spider. They had become something else. You have become something else."
"And those were the confirmed casualties?"
"I'm afraid so. There was nothing we could do."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Do your best. I'm sorry."
# # #
Charena went down from the valley rim. The mud felt soft and squishy and familiar under her feet. She passed the remains of her lover, victim, and dinner on the way down. Again she came to the valley and to the yellow squares in the valley where she had killed the giant female spider. She tasted the mist. The scent of the virile male hung heavy like rain drops on the wet leaves. He was alive and therefore had not mated. She followed the scent across the squares and came to a large precision cut rectangular block with a U-shaped handle. Here she had last seen the attractive male.
She reached for the handle and pulled. It opened easily and felt counterbalanced. Whoever had build this had at least advanced to the level of ancient Greek architecture. A dark hole lay exposed and she had no choice but to follow the scent trail into the hole.
The spoor was stronger inside. She clicked across the hard stones with her knife toes. When she turned the dark corner she could not see, but she followed the scent unerringly like a homing missile. Then she saw a yellow glow. She knew that she was directly under the checkered squares that lay in the clearing above the ground. Each square acted as a lens and magnified the sun's rays and warmed the room. The mixture of scent, fungus, and damp came to her human mind like brewing beer, mushrooms, and warm bread. Her spider mind did not know these words, but it knew the feeling and it felt right.
In the middle of the golden pattern on the floor she saw the purple iridescent male. He sat motionless except for the slightest tap, tap, tap of his mandibles. Charena knew at a level deeper than her human mind could comprehend that he was fated for her as though it were written in these stones so far away from Earth and waiting all her life until this moment to be consummated. There was no turning back.
And he came to her a willing victim. They tumbled and rolled, tumbled and rolled until her mind and body ached for release. Then is one final act of ecstasy he convulsed heavily and presented his neck fully extended within reach of her sharp cutters. She gently snipped off his head and lay with him while his headless body continued to pulse spasmodically and uncontrollably for a long time.
She was happy.
Later, after she had eaten the last meal of her life, she lay dozing on her back in the center of the underground nest in the warm yellow light. She looked at her hairy, swollen abdomen and stroked it with a raspy leg. There were thousands of gestating lives within her - each part spider and each part human. True, she would die soon after the eggs hatched, and the young would feed upon her body, but they would grow strong, smart, and fierce. A long roll of thunder shook the sky and earth as she lay dreaming of the future of her children upon their planet.
Saul is a middle aged man who lives in Seattle with his wife and two cats. He likes cycling, cross country skiiing, hiking, and gardening. Saul instructs mountaineering first aid, and works as a programmer at an insurance compnay. He has been published in Analog and earned an honorable mention in a National Writer's Association writing contest in 1995 for his story The Faces of God. Saul is membership chairperson of the Seattle Writer's Association.
E-mail: loverainsky@prodigy.net
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