“And how is Mack?” I asked, changing the subject.
I couldn’t hear him shooting since I’d shut the door and Delight had blown away the two monsters holding me. Good, old Delight.
“Old?” Doc asked, coming through the door. “That little lady ain’t never getting old.”
“She isn’t even going to make middle age,” Tens agreed, then indicated the wound on my neck. “I haven’t had time to dress it, yet.”
“That’s fine, son. You get back to looking out for Mack. I’ll take care of our accident-prone friend, here.”
I was accident prone?
Doc pulled a chair up beside the bed.
“Yeah. You are.”
Fine. Whatever.
Doc pulled out a hypoderm and I felt my heart speed up, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to escape him. I couldn’t even protest. He looked down at me, and smiled grimly.
“Arach venom,” he said. “I’ll have to remember that next time I want to give you some shots.”
I’d have glared if I could have, but the venom had affected those muscles, as well. I wondered why it hadn’t affected my heart, or ability to breathe, but wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Doc told me, anyway.
“Adaptation,” he said. “We’re not sure if it was deliberate, or just a trick of nature, but they only feed off living prey, and most critters need a heartbeat and air in order to do that. Their venom leaves those alone, takes out pretty much everything else.”
Well, that explained that, and I thought about how terrible it was to watch yourself being eaten, without being able to fight the monster off.
“They also say the arach like the taste of terror, and that it flavors the blood, when they feed.”
That was a horrible idea, and I wondered what creation myth had demons creating life, because I doubted there was a deity anywhere who’d have made anything so diabolical.
“You’d be surprised,” Doc muttered, but he didn’t elaborate, and I could feel his fingers moving over the bite wound. “You were lucky they were in a hurry.”
Man, I thought, as sleep dragged at my mind, if that was luck, then I didn’t want to know what unlucky was!
Doc muttered a reply, but I didn’t catch it as fatigue rolled me under.
I woke in the infirmary, like I had so many times before, but this time it was different—Mack wasn’t waiting for me, when I woke up. That worried me, far beyond the fact it was out of the norm. It meant I either hadn’t been under for that long, or the mission had run over time... and I didn’t think it was the former.
I could feel the familiar buzz of nanites on the skin at my neck and wrist, and noticed the clear, plastic patch over the bite mark on my inner arm. Reaching up, I could feel a similar patch over the wound in my neck. The fact I could see new skin at my wrist meant the little bugs had nearly finished their work. The fact I’d woken up before they were done was disturbing.
“Doc?” My voice sounded raspy, but at least I had it back.
I sat up, and swung my legs over the side of the bed, glad to notice I was in a standard-issue hospital gown.
Time, I thought, I went and found myself some combat armor, gear and guns.
It bothered me that Doc still hadn’t made an appearance, but it didn’t stop me. If something had gone wrong with the ship, I’d find out soon enough. Which reminded me...
I stopped, half-way through the door, and used my implant to hook into the ship’s systems. If Mack and Delight hadn’t returned, then Tens would probably be too busy at the teleport station to notice...
“Don’t bet on it, Cutter.” Tens voice came through the implant loud and clear. “Ship isn’t compromised, but I don’t think I can say the same for our mutual friends. Get your gear, and get your arse back here.”
I figured ‘here’ meant the teleport station, and sighed. Now, I definitely wasn’t waiting for Doc. Having him mad at me was on just about the same level as having Tens mad at me—and I didn’t enjoy being in either situation. I made it to my quarters, and checked my closet.
The light combat suit and some underwear was better than the little-more-than-nothing gown I had on, so I pulled them on. It looked like I’d have to get down to the armory to have a chance at getting any form of armor, so that could be my next stop... Right after I got my tools... oh.
I sighed, realizing my tools would still be in the combat armor I’d been wearing when I’d made it back on board. The only question was: where had that been put, when it had been taken off me? After a moment’s thought, I figured that, since it had needed charging, it would probably have been returned to the armory.
I could kill two birds with one stone.
Decision made, I grabbed my spare boots and got them on, ignoring the minor twinges of pain I felt where I’d been bitten by the arach and Costral’s river monster. The armory was a quick jog along the corridor and down a couple of decks.
I got a few strange looks, but people moved out of my way, and I made it there in double-quick time. Tens must have called ahead, because I was met by Steppy when I arrived. He said nothing, just pointed at where the armor waited on a stand by the door.
“Is it charged?”
He rolled his eyes.
“Charged, cleaned, and repaired.” That last was said with enough venom, to be a reprimand, and I felt myself blushing in response.
“Fine.” It would do me no good to show remorse. I had shit to get done, and no time to deal. “Weapons?”
He shot me a glare that should have stopped me in my tracks, but I ignored it, sealing the armor shut, but leaving the hood hanging open. I’d seal that just before I ported. Give the Chief his due, though, he didn’t waste time in a pissing competition, he just stomped his way to a locked cupboard set in the wall, palmed it open, and pulled out half a dozen weapons.
The knives slid easily into the sheaths in my boots, the Zakrava I holstered on my left hip, and the Glazer on my right. The Blazer I slung so that it hung within easy reach across my chest, but not before slipping on the harness that allowed me to settle the broad-bladed machete against my back.
“You did your research,” I said, and his lips twitched.
“I remember the last time you were down.” He gestured briefly towards me. “This is your standard load out—unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”
I thought back to the Odyssey training sessions where we’d gone all out. Once I’d started really wanting to beat Ax, I’d worked out where the blind spots were in the training course, and set myself up to do my dirtiest work where the cameras couldn’t catch me. It took me seconds to decide it would be handy to be equipped to do that, again.
“It’s close. I’ll send you some personal footage from training, after the mission—not for sharing,” although I wondered exactly how I was going to be able to stop Mack and Tens from taking a peek.
“You mean you fight dirtier?” and I couldn’t be sure if he was disappointed, impressed, or just morbidly curious.
“That depends on your point of view,” I snapped, running a mental check on my gear, and checking to see if I still had my tools.
Once I was sure they were all accounted for, I nodded, once, to Steppy, and headed out the door.
“Thank you,” I said, and hustled into a jog.
Tens would be waiting, and he was worried about Mack. Patience would not be his strong suit.
“Get your ass up here.”
I mean, what did the man think I was doing?
“Wasting my time.”
I clamped down on anything I might think in answer to that, and dog-trotted up to Teleportation.
“About bloody time,” Tens said, as I came through the door.
I was about to respond, when Mack’s voice came through the speakers.
“Now, Tens! Bloody, now!” and Tens turned back to the console in front of him, his hands moving rapidly across it, as his lips moved in soundless command. On either side of him, the technicians were working just as hard, and I noticed how silve
r streamers of lightning played across the teleportation pad.
I stood as still as I could, not wanting to distract the team as it worked, refusing to be even the slightest bit noticeable.
“Stop thinking,” Tens muttered, and I forced my mind to stillness, watching as the lightning leapt into the center of the receiving platform, and wove itself together, slowly coalescing into the shape of a human being.
Doc came racing into the room, not slowing down as the lightning faded to reveal the huddled form of a young woman in the center of the platform. The last ripples of light hadn’t quite faded, when Doc moved to her side, shaking out the blanket he’d been carrying, and casting it over her naked skin. Crouching beside her, he rested a hand on her back, speaking softly in Galbas until she raised her head and looked at him.
I lost what passed between them, when Tens started to speak.
“Mack. Come in, Mack. Over.”
Silence greeted him, and his hands moved across the controls.
“Mack?”
I pushed off the wall, and started heading towards the platform. Doc, in the meantime, had gotten the girl to her feet, and, pulling the blanket firmly around her, was leading her towards one of the recovery rooms. She moved hesitantly, flinching whenever she caught sight of another person, as though she was expecting something else.
Given what Andreus had keeping him company, down there, I couldn’t blame her. It made me wish I’d asked Doc for a couple of vials of antivenin.
Tens cursed loudly, and then moved away from his console, lacing his fingers together, and wrapping his hands around the back of his head.
“Fuck!” he repeated, and drove the toe of his boot into the nearest wall, a couple of times. I stopped, just short of the platform, and added my stares to the stares of his team.
“What?” and he took his hands away from his head, and rested his head on a forearm he pressed against the wall.
“What?” I demanded, again, when he didn’t answer.
“I lost them.”
I felt the skin on my face grown cold.
“Before, or after, you started the port?”
“Before. It was like the link was cut.”
“I’ll look into it. Did Delight get the systems open?”
He stepped away from the wall.
“Yes. Here,” and he sent it through to the implant.
Maybe, this time, I wouldn’t have to go in half so blind. I sat on the edge of the platform, and accessed the complex. It was hard to push aside images of grey-skinned men, who sprouted extra arms, and whose mouths stretched to accommodate elongated fangs, but I managed. I had to get into the security feeds, pull the schematics, and locate Mack and Delight.
“The mission’s done,” Tens said, reading my intent.
“Mack and Delight are still down there, and so’s Andreus. It’s not done, yet.”
He eyed me with some speculation.
“You going back down?”
“You going to punch the keys?”
“Sure.”
“I need two minutes.”
“Hurry.”
“Drop me on the coordinates you last had for them.”
He began preparing the machines, and left me in peace to scan through the systems we’d hacked. Whatever protections he’d had against hacking, Andreus hadn’t continued them throughout his system. Devious, he might be, but Ghoul, he wasn’t. I ran through the files I’d found... Eew.
Okay, he wasn’t Ghoul when it came to systems security, but in other areas... I felt my stomach do a slow triple-flip. In other areas he was more—a Ghoul and Blaedergil combined. I shoved the files away, and focused on locating Mack and Delight.
“Got them!” Tens shout broke through my search. “Move back.”
I got off the platform, and moved back behind the row of consoles, finding a place against the wall. On the other side of the room, I saw Doc emerge, and stand in the doorway of the recovery room. Together, despite being separated by the width of the room, we waited.
Again, silver lightning coalesced around two forms in the center of the platform. This time, however, they did not land huddled into helpless balls of misery. At first, I took that as a good sign... and then I realized we had a problem.
I caught sight of hard, grey skin, and I didn’t think any further; I just raised the Blazer and fired at center mass. My first round caught one by surprise, and knocked him back into his partner. From over near the consoles, I could hear Tens shouting, and caught the flash of movement as people dived for cover, and I ignored it all.
I knew what these creatures were, and there was no way either of these fuckers was making it off that platform, alive. The one I’d hit lurched suddenly towards me, as though he’d been pushed. Whatever, after the initial momentum had worn off, he kept coming. I put two more rounds into him, before Tens blocked my line of fire, wading in close with an elongated blade that hummed with electricity and light.
Damn! Now, why hadn’t I thought to get me one of those?
“Don’t leave me hanging, Cutter!”
Right.
I dropped the Blazer, and pulled the machete, running in to where Tens had engaged the closest, injured arach. Beyond him, I could see the other one heading towards Doc.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” I muttered, leaving Tens to his destructive dance.
I’d been good with guns on the combat range, but we hadn’t been allowed to get too enthusiastic with the blade—at least, not after I’d put Ax into a regen tank for the third time. That had also been when they’d started checking my load out, before I’d gone onto the range.
“It’s training,” they’d told me, confiscating my dirtier tricks, while the others had looked on, open-mouthed. Honestly, you’da thought my team mates would have been taking notes, but they weren’t. I’d had to take my blade training off-campus, and in secret. I just figured it would be another way I could protect myself during missions—besides, it meant I could still fight dirty, even with a standard load-out, and didn’t that just impress Ax so much?
Now, it looked like that extra training was going to come in handy—especially since it had involved coordinating blade and gun. I pulled the Zakrava, as I leapt onto the platform behind Tens.
“You put a hole in his ship, and Mack isn’t going to like you very much,” Tens said, as I bolted past.
“He doesn’t like me, anyway,” I shot back, firing the Zakrava, twice, into the arach going for Doc. “Hey! Ugly!”
I slowed my forward momentum, sliding to a half stop, and swinging the machete towards the gap between two sets of its arms, with as much force as I could muster. That actually worked out a whole lot better than I’d thought it would, because the arach turned, and didn’t register the blade until it had sliced across its diaphragm.
I fired under the back-swing, putting another two rounds into its chest, before the blade struck home, and then two more as I ended the swing and pulled the hilt towards me, followed by a final two as I rammed the blade as far into the monster as I could.
It screamed as I twisted the machete, and started to pull it out, but all that did was remind me it had a head. I raised my aim, using the edge of my vision to check for potential cumulatives behind it before I fired.
There weren’t any, but it didn’t matter, because I didn’t miss. Arach might be monsters, but they were like any other monster, I’d ever encountered. You put enough rounds into their heads, and they all fall down.
“And you are on cleaning duty, just as soon as you get back,” Tens muttered. “Congratu-fucking-lations.”
“You could try being grateful,” I retorted, grabbing my monster by the leg, and pulling it off the platform. “Besides, can’t you just teleport the ick right back to Andreus? After all, it is his mess.”
“And you are such a funny fucker,” but he towed his own corpsified arachnid off the dais, and headed back to the console. “You found them yet?”
I put one hand on my hip, and gave him my best “Are you
kidding me?” look out from under my brows. He completely ignored it, dropping his arach corpse in front of the console, and heading back around to the controls.
“Nope,” he said, altering a few settings. “I’ve got the coordinates they came in from, and Mack and Delight are going to need their locators if I’m gonna be able to pick them up, again. We’re gonna assume they’re in the same space.”
“What if they’ve been moved?” I asked.
I wasn’t even going to pretend they’d moved themselves. Neither of them would have given up their tracers—not without a fight—and neither of them would have let the arach port out of wherever they were, without warning Tens and me.
“They won’t have gone far. These two didn’t take up that much of our time.”
I heard a snort from Doc, and looked over in time to see him disappear back into the recovery room.
“Who was that, exactly?” I asked, meaning the girl he’d ported up at Mack’s request. “Melari?”
“Good guess,” he said. “Mission was to get her back. It’s why I said the mission was over.”
“We failed on subtle.”
“Subtle went out the window the second the arach turned up.”
“So, we’re retrieving Mack and Delight.”
“Yeup.”
“We gonna get paid?”
“You bet your sweet cheeks, we are. Mack will make sure of that.”
“If we can get him back.”
I had slid the locator bracelets off the arachs’ wrists, while we spoke, and now I moved over to the platform, eyeing the slick of blood and other bits splashed across its surface.
“I can’t port you out on that,” Tens said.
I eyed the mess, and looked over at him. Basics had only lightly touched on the theory of teleportation. It hadn’t gone anywhere near the risks of porting out from a contaminated surface. It had made no sense. How could it be any more hazardous to port out from this, than it was to port back in from a muddy field, or a bloody dungeon? Tens must have caught the disbelief in my head, because he gave an impatient sigh.
“I don’t have time to explain.” He turned to one of the techs, only to find the girl was heading towards the door.
“I’ve got it.”
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