Kaiju Preservation Society(19)

“No one anticipates surprises,” Kahurangi said. “That’s what makes them surprises.”

In the distance now, there was a mournful cry of a mountain in pain.





CHAPTER

7




About fifteen minutes before arrival, a Gold Team member walked through the cabin, distributing hats and gloves. Everyone took them, and so did we. The gloves looked suspiciously small, as did the hat, which looked like a cap with a veil that went all the way around.

“This looks like a jellyfish,” I said. “A small one.”

“It stretches,” Tom said. “So do the gloves. Put them on. The veil attaches to your suit like Velcro. Get a good seal.” He nodded to Aparna and Kahurangi, both of whom had long hair. “You’ll want to tuck your hair into your cap.”

“Well, this is a fashion statement,” Niamh said, when we had all put on our accessories.

“I’m guessing insects,” Aparna said. “Bitey ones.”

“You’re not wrong,” Tom said.

“How bad are they?”

Tom smiled. “The good news is, it’s only until we get to the base proper. The bad news is, that’s two hundred meters.”

“Look.” Niamh pointed out the window. “I think we’re here.”

Out of the trees was a clearing, either a natural or man-made meadow. On one side of it, on pylons, was an immense wooden hangar, accompanied by smaller hangars on each side. I assumed the large one was for the Shobijin, and the smaller ones for things like helicopters or tinier airships. This suspicion was confirmed as I saw what looked like a two-person helicopter being towed out onto an adjoining pad. A small distance away was another platform that looked like it held, of all things, a refinery. Farther out, another platform, holding an array of solar panels and three lazily turning vertical wind turbines.

Some distance away from all of that was the Shobijin’s mooring station, alongside which were mobile gangways that led to a platform raised off the meadow floor. From the platform, a walkway stretched up and over into a gathering of sequoia-size trees. Among the trees were wooden platforms and walkways and buildings, the whole affair swaddled in what looked like fine nettings and coverings.

“That’s Tanaka Base?” I asked.

“It is.”

“Did you mean to make it look like an Ewok village, or was that just an accident?”

“Well, technically speaking, Tanaka predates the Ewok village by a couple of decades. So it looks like us.”

“Does George Lucas know that?”

“He might.”

The Shobijin was maneuvered into her moorings and the gangways extended. We had officially landed. People got up and grabbed their things.

“Ready?” Tom said.

The doors opened. We shuffled out, stepped through the doorway onto the gangplank, and were immediately swarmed by apparently all the small flying insects that ever existed in the history of the universe.

“Jesus,” Kahurangi said, swatting.

“Don’t swat,” Tom said to him. “It just encourages them.”

“They’re very excited to eat me.”

“It’s not personal, they want to eat everyone. Just keep walking.”

“Is this usual?” I asked.

“This is light,” Tom said. He pointed to Tanaka Base, which everyone was moving speedily toward. “Now you know why the whole place is screened in.”

“You could have warned me about the danger of being exsanguinated in my first five minutes here,” I said.

“It gets better,” he said. “Watch.” He pointed to the long walkway into the base, which was covered and screened. As we got closer, I heard the sound of fans blowing air forcefully away from the entrance of the covered walkway, blowing away the swarm as they did so. Ten steps into the covered walkway and the number of flying insects had dropped from dangerous to merely annoying. Twenty-five steps in and they were mostly gone.

I admired the lack of bloodthirsty creatures. “Nice.”

“The big blowers go on when sensors notice someone approaching,” Tom said. “But the fans are always blowing a light breeze through the walkway, away from Tanaka. It’s a determined bloodsucker that makes it all the way in.”

“And if they do?”

“Well, that’s why we keep frogs, of course.”

“What?”

Tom ignored the question and pointed to my cap-and-veil ensemble. “Out in the world this will keep most of the small ones away from you. The bigger ones, the ones near water, are the ones you want to look out for. They smell your breath, they come right for your face.”

“How big are they?” Aparna asked.

“The bigger ones you don’t swat. You punch.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking,” Aparna said after a minute.

“The air here is thicker and has more oxygen in it than it did on Earth when we had insects with a meter-long wingspan,” Tom said. “You’re the biologist, you tell me.”

Aparna sighed. “Punchable insects, okay, got it.”

From ahead of us, the first of Gold Team had made it into Tanaka, and cheering had started going up. We all looked at Tom.

“That’s Red Team,” he said. “The people we’re replacing. They are very happy to see us.”