by T. Y. Carew
***
Matt watched the other ship. She felt conflicted. It was a life form. Albeit a miserable one.
The Contessa drew near the Beltine vessel and Matt began to feel the call of the alien Adamanta.
“Be ready to run,” she said. “There are too many things that don’t add up here.”
“I agree.” Tyra appeared concerned.Xander sat in the copilot seat next to Tyra. Matt couldn’t read him from the back, but she was pretty sure he had his hard-as-stone, serious expression on his face. He wasn’t one to show his feelings going into battle.
They moved up on the hive ship and slowly decreased speed to match it.
Tyra silently docked Contessa against the Beltine hull and sealed an airlock to it so Trey could cut through.
“Scan for other craft while we’re aboard the hive ship and stay in contact. I want to know as soon as the cavalry arrives.”
“Aye, aye, Boss.”
***
The hole through the enemy ship’s hull opened into a dimly lit hold. Its walls were stacked high with containers. There were no Beltine in sight. Xander let out the breath he’d been holding since he'd stepped through the hatch.
“I hate being sealed inside the enemy hold,” he said.
“If we have to, we can blast our way out,” Trey said. “It’s probably easier from this side of their shields.”
Xander wasn’t convinced, but they were here to fight, not run away.
The crew had their kits and Xander had armed himself with an extra laser pistol and a bandolier of battery packs.
Working their way single-file between crates, it seemed to Xander that they may have gotten in undetected. Then the lights went out.
Chapter 5
21 hours, 23 minutes, 08 seconds
Drew saw images swirling in front of his eyes. Sometimes the visions stopped and stood still before swimming away again. There were grinning faces he didn’t know and animals he couldn’t identify. He saw his first day of school and his first stay in hospital. He saw himself in collapsing mineshafts and on teeming battlefields. He saw himself as a little boy, but struggling against chains and bindings.
Mom, Dad, I think I want to go home now. I don’t like this place.
“It’s just a little longer,” he heard his mother say.
Good, ‘cause I’m kinda scared.
Drew faded into a stupor for a while. He was trapped inside a small capsule with no stimulus outside himself and with nowhere to go except inside his own mind.
The darkness was so absolute, so oppressive, it seemed designed to cause madness. It was causing madness.
Drew snapped awake. He heard thumping and bumping outside his tiny craft. Rescue? He heard the seal breaking and the hiss of pressure equalizing. He was saved! His friends had come to free him from the darkness. The lid of the capsule lifted away and a Dairos bent down, reaching for him with fingers made of Adamanta daggers.
Seeing the horrifying insect face and Adamanta eyes was too much. Drew tried to scream, but he couldn’t make a sound. He struggled to free himself from his tiny prison, but his arms and legs were paralyzed. His head felt like it was in a vise.
As the Dairos swarmed around, reaching, reaching, ready to eat, Drew tried again to scream and made the tiniest of peeps. It woke him up from the terrible scene he had been in.
“Calm down. Slow your breathing,” Drew said aloud, still inside the tiny pod.
He noted that he was wet with sweat. Not good. Sweat means humidity, and it also means I’m losing hydration, and there’s no water in here. The humidity will cause the air to foul quicker and make it heavy and hard to breathe.
And now he was thirsty. His lips were dry and his mouth felt sticky. Why don’t they put water supplies inside these things, he wondered. Because they don’t make these things anymore, he thought dryly. Because nowadays lifeboats are real escape pods with up to eight people and survival supplies for over a month. It was just his luck to get trapped inside a museum piece. He tried to lift his head and felt a sharp jolt throughout his body, followed by a split second of nothing. When he came to, he had trouble remembering where he was.
His mind swam. He was dogpaddling through thoughts, trying to find the one that meant something, trying to make sense of the rush of feelings, words, ideas and fears that poured into a pool in his mind. He could no longer feel the wound on the back of his head. He could no longer feel anything. He felt like he was floating and realized sourly that he really was. In his tiny tomb, he was floating through a universe of darkness.
Drew succumbed to the pull of sleep, the allure of unconsciousness.
***
Xander flipped on his spotlight.
“Did we do that?”
“I don’t think so,” Trey said.
The dull gray walls seemed to absorb the light.
“It’s a trap,” Matt said flatly. “If we go in there with spotlights on, we’ll be sitting ducks.”
“So our attack is thwarted by someone flipping a switch?” Trey swore quietly.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Matt said. “I say we go in with lights off. We’ll find out if Kyraos can see in the dark.”
“They don’t have to,” Trey said. “All they need is a crush of Dairos rushing us and they’re at an advantage.”
Matt drew four of her swords from their sheaths and sent them along the ceiling toward the waiting enemy.
“Flash your lights,” she whispered. Xander and Trey flashed their lights. It was just enough illumination for Matt to get a freeze-frame in her mind. She swiftly moved her swords down like scythes cutting wheat. Four Dairos fell, their blood splashing out onto the floor.
Matt moved forward, four swords in the air, and called for Xander to flash his light again. In that moment, she found herself nearly within the reach of a pair of Dairos. Matt brought her swords down hard and executed a back flip away from danger. She didn’t quite stick the landing and stumbled back into strong arms she felt sure were Xander’s at the same time as one loud thump came from the enemy's direction.
She gently extracted herself from the warm embrace.
Trey flashed on the spotlight attached to his belt and lunged forward, slashing the remaining Dairos with his dagger.
Matt brought her swords back to her after wiping them across a Beltine uniform to clean off the ghastly alien blood.
“The smell is horrific,” Trey said as they moved past the carnage in the corridor. “What do these bloody things eat?”
“Their dead,” Matt said, wrinkling her nose.
“You know the drill,” Xander interrupted. “We’re on their turf. Time to see what’s around that corner.”
Pressing their backs to the wall, the group moved forward cautiously. Mattie sent two sets of eyes ahead to reconnoiter, keeping them close to the ceiling. She closed her own eyes and shifted her vision to the tiny cameras.
“It’s empty,” Matt said. “There is another door about twenty feet in. It appears to be ajar and there’s light the other side of it.”
The group moved forward. Mattie used one of her swords to gently push the door wide. Light flooded from the open portal as she sent in the eyes.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just an empty room.”
“How many doors to the room?” Xander asked.
“Two open corridors. The Beltine are probably ready to swarm in from them as soon as we’re inside.”
“That seems fair,” Trey said.”
“Weapons ready,” Xander said. “Let’s move in.”
***
The walls of the room were the same smooth silver as the hull. Light radiated down from panels overhead.
Trey noticed a slight change in the air as he moved forward into the big space. It was something, perhaps a smell, perhaps a slight change in temperature. It was certainly a change from the smell of bug guts in the hallway.
In only a second, four Beltine rushed from the other doorways.
Trey loosened his daggers and drew
his sidearm. He checked the others and saw that Matt had more than just swords in the air.
He heard a familiar crackle as Mattie’s zappers stopped the first Dairos before it was two steps out of the door. Dropping to his knee, Trey aimed and fired into an advancing Beltine and then drove one of his daggers into another.
He glanced at Matt and noticed the grim look of concentration on her face as she wielded her weapons.
No more enemy fighters came through the door.
***
“Fall back,” Xander said.
Matt was reluctant, but she had to admit she needed a rest. She was struggling against the mass of Adamanta in the ship’s structure. It made all of her weapons seem heavy and made her head hurt.
They leaned against the wall of the corridor to catch their breath.
“We need to press forward,” Matt said. “It won’t be long before another batch of those creeps stumble onto us.”
***
Trey sniffed the air and grimaced. The smell of the fallen Dairos seemed to grow suddenly stronger. Before he could turn to look, a laser bolt slashed his shoulder, cutting his uniform and scorching his flesh.
“They’re behind us!” He turned to see a pair of Beltine fighters rushing down the hallway. A breeze carried the scent of gore his way. He fired his laser from the hip and downed a Dairos. One of Mattie’s swords brought down the other.
“We’d better keep moving,” Xander said.
With the scent of gore strong in his nostrils, Trey took the lead, moving forward cautiously, his pistol holstered and his daggers at the ready. The corridor ahead was dark, with only the occasional flicker of illumination from a ceiling panel. A dozen yards in, Trey could see hallways branching off on both sides. He nodded to Xander and Matt, making sure they saw.
Xander stayed close to the right wall, while Trey hugged the left. As they advanced, two of Matt’s camera eyes flew forward along the ceiling and split off down the hallways.
“It’s pretty dark in both directions. What I can see is empty.”
“What do you think?” Xander asked, addressing both Trey and Matt. “Do we go forward, or take one of the side routes?”
“We could split up,” Matt said. “Each of us take a corridor.”
“I don’t feel good about separating, right now,” Xander said.
“I know,” Matt responded. “With Drew missing, everything has changed, but the sooner we do this, the sooner we can get busy finding him.”
Trey leaned back against the bulkhead and sighed.
“I’m afraid I agree with both points of view, but in the end, the decision is yours, Colonel.”
“So the vote is one and a half to one and a half,” Xander said. “I guess that’s why a ship is not a democracy. Splitting up does make the most sense. Keep your comms open and don’t hesitate to call for help.”
They started forward, with Xander going right, Trey left and Mattie straight ahead.
“Oh, and don’t get lost,” Xander said.
***
Xander was feeling the fatigue. He had not slept in over twenty-four hours and he had been on high alert for most of that time. His muscles felt heavy and weak. If he encountered the enemy, he knew from experience that adrenaline would make up for the lack of rest, but right now he was dead tired.
Switching on his light, Xander swept the path ahead. There were no Dairos to be seen, but the glow of the torch beam revealed a closed door ahead on the left.
Cautiously, Xander pressed his hand against the door. It slid open easily and almost silently. A flood of sound poured out. It probably wasn’t all that loud, but given the silence of the corridor, it seemed very loud.
Stepping into the small room behind the door with both of his guns drawn, Xander found three elite Dairos sitting at computer consoles with their backs to him.
The Dairos on the right turned to face Xander and started to rise. A laser bolt to the throat knocked it back and left the creature slumped in its chair.
As the other two turned toward him, Xander could see they were unarmed, but that did not stop them from lunging for him. He fired again with both pistols. One shot hit its mark, burning into the unprotected neck of the Dairos. It collapsed on the spot. The second shot went wild, glancing harmlessly off the wall.
Xander stepped back, attempting to avoid the grabbing, slashing paws of the advancing monster. It managed to grab his shoulders, but he pressed his gun to its throat and squeezed the trigger. The beast fell heavily against him, its sticky blood dripping onto his uniform.
With some effort, Xander managed to push the Dairos aside. The room was otherwise unoccupied. He took a few moments to examine the images on the computer screens. The symbols were strange and meaningless to him, but he thought what a field day Drew would have had in that room.
Stepping to the doorway, Xander peeked out into the hall. A laser bolt shot by inches from his head. Dropping low, he dove out of the room, firing repeatedly. As he hit the floor, he saw a Dairos fall. Lucky shot!
Putting himself out in the open in order to see his targets, silhouettes really, had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now Xander was exposed and he could see the dark shapes of several Dairos advancing on him in the semi-darkness.
Spinning around feet first, Xander continued to fire and managed to bring down another Dairos. As they closed in, he could see that there were two remaining.
Taking careful aim with the pistol in his right hand, Xander squeezed the trigger but the gun only beeped three times. Empty. He tried his left and managed one shot that wounded but did not fell the large creature. A second try rewarded him with more beeps.
The animals seemed aware of Xander’s helplessness and rushed forward. He had no time to change out battery packs. In the past, he had been reluctant to use his daggers in combat. Despite many hours of training, he just did not feel confident enough of his ability to test it in a life-and-death situation. Now he had no choice.
Using his mind, Xander drew the twin Adamanta knives from their sheaths on his back and launched them forward. One buried itself in the wounded Dairos’ throat, but the other was knocked aside by the second Dairos. With a quick push from his thoughts, Xander brought the blade back and slashed at the creature, cutting from side to side across its throat and nearly beheading it.
He breathed a sigh of relief and once again felt fatigue weighing down his limbs. The floor under his body was cool and inviting, but he fought the urge to rest, knowing he might fall asleep. He struggled to his feet.
***
Light flickered on overhead as Trey marched steadily down the corridor with his pistol drawn and both daggers hovering in the air above his head. He already had good control of several zappers at a time, but one day he hoped to master the little camera eyes that gave Matt something of an advantage.
It bothered him that the light had come on. It could simply mean that repairs to the hive ship were progressing, or it could mean the enemy was advancing on his position. The hallway took a right turn ahead and Trey pressed his back to the wall.
Before he could reach the turn, a Dairos rounded the corner, unaware of Trey’s presence. He was not sure how the Dairos communicated, but he wasn’t taking chances. His blade slid across the creature’s throat, ending any chance it might raise an alarm. A Kyraos somewhere was probably aware of the Dairos’ death, and Trey hoped he made it flinch.
Trey waited a full minute before advancing. Walking around the corner into the embrace of a group of responding Dairos would be unpleasant, to say the least.
Slowly, he began to move forward. Pushing the dead Beltine’s body aside with his foot, he peered around the corner.
There were three doors on each wall and another at the far end. Whether the hallway ended or rounded another corner was hard to tell, with the dark brown walls blending into one another. Trey mused that it was even worse than the military ships he’d been aboard.
Moving toward the first door, he considered calling for backup,
but decided he could handle whatever came up by himself. The motion-sensitive door slid open and Trey stepped inside, daggers loose in their sheaths and a laser pistol in his hand.
If he had been human, almost any human, Trey’s heart would have been beating faster, but that was not a normal Lentarin physiological response. If anything, his heartbeat slowed and energy built up in his limbs preparing for a lightning-fast strike at prey in a version of fight-or-flight responses.
A dozen Dairos stood against the walls. They seemed oblivious to his presence.
Trey moved slowly through the long room between creatures. It seemed bad sport to kill even Dairos who were unaware of the danger, but then, the Beltine were not big on etiquette.
All at once, the big creatures seemed to become aware. They took a step forward and then turned on Trey. He found himself surrounded by the enemy, their nasty paws grasping for him.
Trey grinned and holstered his pistol. He caught his knives in his hands and began wielding them with a skill he had known even before he'd ever heard of Adamanta. The Beltine claws tore at his uniform, while he struggled to slash two Dairos at once. The drones were strong, but they were unarmed.
The Beltine had only a rather crude grasp of hand-to-hand combat, since they depended most on brute force and sheer numbers, but they could still be deadly. Trey was determined not to become part of these Dairos' stomach contents, and he fought with a fury forged in survival instinct.
In their drive to kill or capture Trey, the Dairos cast their own dead out of the way, allowing him to continue fighting toward the door. One of the creatures grabbed at him from behind and he sent his dagger flying, driving it home with all the force his mind could muster. He stepped aside, snatching his blade from the enemy’s spine as it fell past him. His blind thrust at the drone behind him had been impressive. Too bad no one saw it. Trey smiled to himself.
One more lunge and slash and his way to the door was clear. Trey stepped out into the hallway to find a half dozen more Dairos headed his way. This is going to complicate things, he observed.
***
Matt sent four of her flying infrared eyes ahead down the corridor. She wouldn’t see much in the darkness herself, but using the tiny cameras would make up for that deficiency. With nothing obvious ahead and no doors visible on the walls, she felt confident moving quickly.
