Chapter 12: Selubs

"Stay hovering right where you are Val," Deanna ordered. She changed frequency and spoke to Remi, "I'm going to be out of contact for a little while Remi. If you need to contact someone I'm leaving Jazlyn in charge while I'm gone. I'll explain more to you when I have more time."

"Rafi are you there?" she asked.

"Still here Deanna," he answered.

"Are the plants coming into the room where you are?" She asked.

"No, not yet they are just squirming around and covering the entrance.

"Go to the next floor down and wait for us," she ordered and then she turned to Jazlyn and ordered, "Take over I'm going outside." Without waiting for a response she leaped from the seat and went to the hatch. Deanna pressed a button and the hatch opened.

Deanna leaped out, spread her wings, and sailed away till she had put some distance between herself and the two hovering shuttle craft. Deanna went lower till she was just over tree top level and then pointed her two forefingers at the jungle below. Fire leaped from both fingers and started to engulf the vegetation below in roaring flames. Deanna spun in place creating an expanding circle of flames.

Val and Jazlyn watched through the windows of their shuttles at the spreading circle of raging fire Deanna was creating in wide-eyed disbelief. They had heard about the incredible powers of the Suetros but they had never seen them before. Deanna turned in the air again and pointed her fingers along the walkway and toward the vine covered ruin. As her fingers pointed a wide swath of fire created a path and burned the vegetation that covered the ruins. The fire issuing from her fingers changed to ice crystals that snuffed out the raging fires and left a large area including the ruins cleared of vegetation.

Deanna flew back and boarded the shuttle, "Take us down Jazlyn land as close to the ruins as you can get." As Jazlyn performed the order she contacted Val, "Val I'm going to slave this shuttle to your controls. Once we have gotten off it I want you to take it up and let it hover beside you until you see us return."

"Yes ma'am," Val answered. Val definitely had a new respect for Deanna having watched her in action.

When the shuttle touched down all six of them armed themselves and hurried through the open hatch. Everyone except Deanna was wearing skinsuits. They turned and approached the ruins and as they did the shuttle left the ground and joined Val's above.

The team followed Deanna as they made their way toward the ruin's exposed entrance. The team was heavily armed and very watchful as they made their way down the first set of steps. When they got to the bottom they found Rafi waiting and he joined them as they cautiously descended the second set of steps. There they found another empty room. Rafi crossed and found the hole in the wall that Stan had told him about and tripped the latch within. The door slid open and revealed the empty room beyond. Instructing Pavel to remain behind Deanna and the rest of the team went in and began searching for the missing members.

The door promptly closed but Pavel quickly opened it again. Deanna stood in the doorway and pointing her finger melted the door and the stonewall together so that it could not close again.

"There," she said when she finished melting the door and its frame together, "that should hold the fucking thing." Deanna was frustrated, there appeared to be no exit from this room but her friends were not here. Where are they? She asked herself mentally.

Stan and his three companions materialized in the center of what appeared to be giant selub stocks (rhubarb stocks). These stocks were alive though with two arms and four legs each. That the Rhubarb creatures were surprised was apparent but that did not prevent them from covering the new comers under an avalanche of bodies pinning them helpless beneath them. Stan struggled and squirmed, his fists and feet crashed into the aggressors sending a number of them stumbling back but sheer numbers rapidly overwhelmed him. He felt a sharp pain in one thigh and then blackness. The others of his team shared the same fate.

When Stan awoke, he found himself bound at the wrists and ankles by strong vine type of ropes that wrapped around a stake and held him upright. Turning his head to one side he saw that the rest of his team was bound to stakes in the same manner. He also noted that their clothing had been torn from them. He looked around him and saw that they were in a large cavern. All around the large cavern his captors busied themselves with various duties.

He picked one them and studied the being closely. The creature did resemble a Selub but it had two arms and four legs. The top area, he hesitated to call it a head sprouted leafy fronds from it. Three eyes, a nose he guessed and a mouth set in the stalk body about a third of the way down. The entire torso or stalk was about six feet long with no visible joints on the torso that allow bending although he later found that the stalk was like rubber and flexible. The body was purple and the legs, arms and fronds on top were green. There was a shaft like attachment that was about three feet long, positioned about midway between the face and the ground, and held tight against the torso.

Stan estimated there were about a hundred of these creatures in the cavern. Two of the creatures engaged in what Stan could only guess was a conversation though it sounded like nothing but a series of whistles to him. When the conversation ended they turned and approached stopping in front of Casta. They pulled the stake from the ground with Casta still tied to it and carried it to the center of the cavern. They placed the stake in two receivers made for it so that he was face up and still bound to the stake. About twenty of the creatures surrounded Casta and then to Stan's horror he discovered what the function of the shaft they each had was. The shafts rose until they were at about a ninety-degree angle from the rest of the creature.

Stan watched helplessly as the sharp point of each stabbed into Casta. He screamed in agony and continued to scream as the shafts drained him of blood. The screaming became weaker and finally ceased as Costa's struggles became weaker and finally he lost consciousness. The creatures continued to drain him of all bodily fluids until what was once Costa was nothing but a shriveled husk. When the last bit of body fluid had been drained, the shafts were withdrawn from the lifeless husk that had once been a human being.

The twenty creatures fell to the ground closed their eyes and became motionless. Two of the other creatures that had not fed on poor Casta grabbed the stake and tossed it to one side with the body of Casta still bound to it. They approached Stan who had little doubt the process would continue with another twenty each time until all four of them died.

Deanna and her team circled the empty room looking for any clue. Myra was crossing the room and accidentally stopped near the center. The lights got brighter and the floor where she stood began to glow. Myra leaped backwards, the glow vanished and the lights returned to normal. Deanna and the rest of the team noticed the change in the light and she had also seen Myra leap back. Deanna investigated the spot on the floor had occurred stepped into it momentarily to trigger it. The other members of her team gathered around it in a circle tracing its outline. Having found nothing else in this room Deanna felt certain this glowing circle must hold a clue to the disappearance of Stan and his team.

Well I guess the only way to see what this circle does is the let it cycle completely, she thought.

Deanna and the rest of the team with the exception of Pavel stepped in and let it run through its cycle. The circle began to glow, the lights got bright and then they vanished only to reappear in the cavern. When they appeared the Selub swarmed at them quickly just as they had they four people of Stan's team. This team however unlike Stan's team with holstered pistols had rifles at ready and when the Selub surged at them they were met with a hail of projectile bullets and then a wall of fire engulfed them from Deanna's outstretched hands. At least forty of the creatures collapsed to the ground riddled with bullets and burning fiercely before the remaining ones could check their progress and back away. The team held their fire but stood facing the ones that remained watchfully.