Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) by David Coy Page A

decided to keep the light on for a while.
    The incline at the cave’s entrance was slippery, and he slid and
skied his way down, holding the lamp in one hand and grabbing at the plants
with the other to keep his balance. The floor of the cave had puddled with
water, and he had to slosh through it to get to the drums. The drums were in
the deepest part of the chamber, sitting in a pool of water. If the water had
been just a little deeper, he was sure the drums would have been floating. He
was beginning to think the cave wasn’t such a good idea after all. He could
feel the water squeezing through the seams of his already soaked boots.
    He slogged over and opened the latch on one of the drums, lifted
the top off and turned the light into it.
    Then he pulled a large plastic bag out of a pocket on the satchel
and transferred the bottles of Xerc into it by handfuls. He saved the last
bottle for himself and slipped it into his pants pocket for a little
celebration later.
    He felt something against his ankle like a tickle and squirmed his
foot around in his boot to clear it. As he was securing the latch on the drum,
he felt another tickle on the sole of his other foot and wiggled that one away,
too.
    He didn’t notice, as he walked under it, that the cluster of eggs
on the ceiling of the cave was now a mass of empty husks. He had no way of
knowing that some biological sensor in the eggs had waited for just this
particular rainstorm and that about an hour before he’d arrived, the ideal
conditions of temperature and humidity had been met. Somehow knowing that the
water under them had reached a sufficient depth, the eggs split open and
dripped their viscous and squirming contents into the pool below. By the time
Geary arrived, the cool, muddy water in the floor of the cave was teeming with
tens of thousands of near-microscopic larvae.
    Getting back out of the cave took some doing, but he inched his
way up, keeping his feet splayed outward to maintain some grip.
    It had stopped raining but distant lightning still lit the sky and
thunder rolled through the jungle in bone-rumbling waves. Sensing a lull in the
storm, the bugs came out in greater numbers than ever, flying at him and past
him, alighting on the net covering his face and neck.
    “That’s zylon netting you bastards,” he said to them. “Try to get
through that.”
    He squirmed his toes against another tickle. He couldn’t wait to
get his wet boots off.
    The light was on in the kitchen of the shelter when he got back.
    It had to be Burkett. He’d have to vary his schedule to work
around that little late-night eating problem of his. He didn’t want to be caught
coming in at night too often by the dumb bastard. There was nothing to do this
time but walk in and act like
everything was normal.
    Soaked to the bone, he did just that.
    Sure enough, Burkett was sitting there in his underwear, hunched
over a platter of meat and potatoes.
    “You been out in this mess?” Burkett mumbled through his food.
    “I like it. You got a problem with that?” Geary asked, stepping
out of the net suit.
    “Nope. Guess I don’t.”
    “Good.”
    He got cleaned up, and by the time he came back out of his room,
Burkett had gone back to his. He made himself a platter, took it back to his
room and ate it quickly; it wasn’t a good idea to take Xerc on an empty
stomach.
    Time to celebrate.
    He took out two tabs and, using the flat bottom of a plastic cup,
ground them into powder against the edge of the sink. He scooped the Xerc into
the cup, ran some water in it and swished it around to dissolve it.
    He downed it in one gulp.
    He headed for the bed and was barely able to turn on his alarm
before it hit him.
    The large dose of dissolved Xerc flooded his system with a warm
gush of pure bliss. The surge of euphoria pulled him down on the bed like a
corpulent lover. He rolled on his back and stared up, mouth agape, adrift in a
state of perfect ecstasy, in need of nothing.
    He slept a deep