Kaiju Preservation Society(62)

“Really?” After three weeks, most of the instrument packages at the kaiju site were low on power, or had experienced glitches, or their images were useless because some creature or another had knocked them over or slimed them up. The science folks were preparing updated instrument packages; we’d send them out once the last of the tourists were gone and Honda Base shut down its dimensional gateway device for maintenance. “Why are you doing that?”

“I would like to say it’s because I’m a good guy and I’m concerned about you, but actually it’s because Riddu Tagaq has told me it’s time for me to recertify for ground and weapons training. If you actually go on a mission right after you recertify, the recertification lasts longer.”

“No one told me that,” I said.

“You got certified to go on a mission, so it was implied.”

“It was not, not in the least.”

“Well, congratulations, Jamie, you won’t need to be recertified for ground and weapons until two tours from now. And once I go on the mission I’m taking you off of, I will be the same. Unless you were really wanting to go.”

“No, you take it. I want you to have it. And while you’re doing that, I’ll be here lifting things.”

“You’re intentionally ignoring my advice, I see,” Tom said.

“No, no, I listened and considered it fully and with gravity,” I said. “And then I rejected it.”

“This is what I get for trying to be helpful.”

“You want to be helpful, I have some things you can deliver for me. Heavy things.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Coward.”



* * *



“Damn it, the feed’s down again,” Niamh said. They were staring angrily into a monitor in the physics lab. The monitor that was arousing their ire was blank.

“What feed?” I asked. I was in the physics lab to pick up equipment to take to storage. The labs at Tanaka Base were small, and anything not directly in use was schlepped away to make room for what was in use.

“The one from the kaiju site.” Niamh pointed at the screen.

“Well, it would be down, wouldn’t it,” I said. “They’re swapping the instruments out over there right now.” It was the Tuesday after we had sent away our last set of tourists, which was the day after they had been sent back to Earth, and the day Honda Base shut down the dimensional gateway for maintenance. Kaiju Earth was on its own for two weeks.

Niamh quickly disabused me of my misapprehension. “No, it wouldn’t,” they said. “Or shouldn’t be, anyway. The individual instrument packages are shut off when we switch them out, but the feed is routed through the aerostat, which has its own camera and instruments as well. The aerostat is not being swapped out, and it’s what out.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“It’s been happening more. The aerostats are like any other machine, they’re finicky and they should probably be brought in for maintenance more than they are.” I grinned at this. “What?” Niamh asked at the grin.

“I’m listening to you complain about the aerostats like you knew they even existed six weeks ago.”

“Look, mate, time is weird over here.”

“Tom was telling me that just the other day.”

“Also, I’m not wrong,” Niamh continued. “We’ve been using the same aerostat over Bella since she squatted her ass down there. That’s a long time. If we lose the feed from the aerostat, we can’t get the data from the instrument packs.”

“You’ll lose the data?”

“No, they all record locally if they can’t connect. But eventually their memory will max out, and then we’ll lose the data.” Niamh was grumpy about that. Having installed the previous instruments, they were proprietary of the data feed.

I nodded. “How long has the feed been out?”

“Just now,” Niamh said. “I was watching the overhead feed, waiting to check the connections on the new instruments. The helicopter had just dropped everyone off, and they were swapping shit out. Then you came in and distracted me, and when I looked back, it was out.”

“Sorry.”

“You’d better be.” They mused at the screen. “It usually drops for a few seconds at most before it comes on again. This is way longer than usual. It’s annoying. I want more data. Data from an instrument pack that’s not been smeared with parasite mucus.”

“I’m going past the administration building,” I said. “Do you want me to tell them the aerostat feed is out? They have a radio connection with Chopper One. They can probably check to see if there’s something obviously wrong.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Niamh said. “By which I mean obviously go and complain to Administration, so you’ll be the one they’ll be annoyed with and not me.”

“On it,” I said.

I got to Administration and found Aparna and Kahurangi there. “The aerostat feed’s out,” Aparna said to me.

“I know. I was told by Niamh to complain about it.”

Kahurangi pointed at Brynn MacDonald’s office. “There’s another problem,” he said. “They can’t raise Chopper One, either.”