by I G Hulme
“Murderers!” screamed the woman in abject desolation. “You killed me! You killed us all!” The woman swung her rifle up from her side, and Ryann only just managed to dive back into cover before another burst of gunfire exploded all around him as she screamed and screamed.
“Angelique!” yelled Ryann, caught behind the oil drums as the shots flew past.
But Angelique couldn’t respond. She was staring, paralysed in fear as she watched a shadow detach itself from the ceiling, descending slowly down towards the woman.
The silhouette of the dark shape seemed to affect something deep within Angelique’s core, awakening some primal terror that overwhelmed her senses so that all she could do was look on in horror.
Eight spider-like legs slowly uncurled to reveal the black silhouette of a bulbous body and the red glow of eight eyes.
She cried out in fear, getting to her feet, stumbling backwards, desperate to escape.
The old woman’s gunfire came to an abrupt halt, her bullets spent, and then only her cry was left, until that too faded away to a whimper. But the sound was replaced by an incessant, high-pitched whine, interspersed with a dreadful clicking sound from the creature as it lowered itself down to the ground.
With a terrible realisation, the old lady looked upwards, straight into the uncurling limbs as they spread out wide. The creature was almost upon her now, lowering itself inexorably down.
She gave the most heart-wrenching scream of terror, falling to the floor and scrabbling back into the Prospector just as the creature reached the ground. The span of its outstretched limbs must have been at least three metres, and slowly they wrapped around the open doorway trapping her inside.
And then suddenly, a blinding burst of light shone out from the creature and the sounds of the woman’s screams intensified.
But Angelique was already running, bouncing off vehicles as she fought her way through the maze of machinery.
There was a final tortured scream behind her and then all fell deathly silent, but Angelique was lost in her panic now, running for her life from that monster.
She felt herself grabbed from behind and she cried out, dropping to her knees as she brought her rifle around in terror.
“Easy! Angelique, it’s me!” came Ryann’s frantic hiss, holding out his hands. Angelique seamed to take a moment to recognise him, her gun still pointing straight at his chest.
And then, without a word she pulled herself back to her feet and plunged back into the shadows of the rusting maze. Ryann swore quietly to himself as he set off after her, following her to the exit as fast as he was able.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE HUNTER
“What the hell was that thing?” panted Angelique at last. They hadn’t stopped running until they were all the way up on the engine deck. They had climbed ladders, crossed darkened walkways, and were now holed up inside a maintenance shaft hoping that they had put enough distance between themselves and that nightmarish creature.
“At first I thought it was alive, when I saw it coming down from the ceiling like that. I almost had a heart attack.” She smiled weakly, the whites of her eyes still shining in stark contrast to her grime-covered face.
“Me too,” murmured Ryann, checking back through the metal grill to see if they had been followed.
“It was only when that cutting-laser opened up that I realised — what do you think it was? Some sort of construction droid or something?”
“It’s a Spiner,” replied Ryann in an exhausted sigh, letting his head fall back upon the rusty metal of the maintenance shaft. “We’re in trouble Angelique.”
They sat in silence for a moment, Angelique shocked by the tone of Ryann’s words.
“My dad used to tell me stories about them when I was a kid — until it gave me nightmares.” He smiled bleakly. “They’re spider-drones, used for mining — spider miners — Spiners.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” whispered Angelique.
“They haven’t been legal for a hundred years,” he replied. “They were used for bore-mining at the end of the Great Expansion, when illegal mining outfits used to operate way out on the edge systems.
“The Spiners were used to core small asteroids, or for working in the bore-holes made by the big planet-core mining vessels. Fleets of those ships would hover off-world, hollowing out entire planets, stripping them of their resources — mostly uninhabited ones, but occasionally the odd colony world if they could get away with it.
“They’d send in thousands, maybe millions of Spiners to extract the ore, precious-metals, whatever.
“Those bore-miners were a law unto themselves — they were often more powerful than the back-water system states they operated in. My father even told me stories of them taking on military dreadnoughts; those bore-lasers would punch a hole right through them and out the other side.
“Eventually, with the rise of the big mining corporations, the Border Wars put an end to them and the technology was outlawed, Spiners too — I can see why now.” He smiled grimly.
“So, what’s one of these antique monsters doing running around killing everyone on this ship?” cursed Angelique. She held her hands up in front of her face and watched helplessly as they still shook.
“I’ve heard that there are still a few around — some drug cartels have tried to use them for security or small-scale assassinations. They get a hacker to jack the Spiner’s programming — you used to be able to get the AI chips on the black-market.
“Only trouble is, they don’t come with a manufacturer’s warranty — they’re just as likely to glitch-out and kill friendlies instead. More trouble than they’re worth.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about black-market assassination bots,” muttered Angelique, raising a questioning eyebrow. Ryann averted his gaze, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment.
“Well, you know I was a little off-the-rails before I had you to look after me — I ran a few bad shipments when I really needed the money — but I never got involved, I was just a smuggler —”
“Jeez Ryann!” cut in Angelique in shock. “I thought that what we were doing in the past was bad enough — I never realised you were getting mixed up in gun-running too!”
“I got mixed up in the wrong crowd for a while, back when I was a kid fighting to survive,” he mumbled apologetically. “But things are different now — like I say, I’ve got you to keep me straight.”
“All grown up,” muttered Angelique sarcastically. “And look where it’s gotten us.” She shook her head wearily. “So, this Spiner droid. How do we kill it?”
“Well, there’s the problem,” sighed Ryann at last. “They’re as tough as a grav-tank. They’re made to withstand pretty much anything the molten innards of a planet can throw at them.
“Our rifles will be pretty ineffectual — we might be able to find some demolition charges or something, seeing as it’s a mining ship. Maybe set up some booby-traps or —”
He paused mid-sentence as a far-off crash echoed up from the lower levels.
“We’d better keep moving,” he whispered, looking back through the grill and into the corridor beyond.
“Do you think we’re safe in here?” asked Angelique in concern as she crawled further into the maintenance shaft on all-fours. The quiet sounds of their movement seemed amplified by the confines of the tunnel, echoing off into the blackness.
“Not sure,” he replied, following on behind. The air in the shaft was hot and stale, and the distant throb of the ventilators sounded like a slow heartbeat, as though they were travelling the innards of some great metal beast. “It looked like it was curled up pretty small when we first saw it lowering itself down on its winch-line. They’re made to get into tight spaces I guess.”
“Thanks for that,” whispered Angelique. “You want to go first?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SILENT RUNNING
They carried on along the narrow maintenance shaft in silence. When they came to a junction they
would nervously turn on their flashlights, half-expecting to see the nightmarish shape of the Spiner suddenly revealed to them, ready to strike. Angelique couldn’t get the image of those grotesque metal legs uncurling, reaching forwards, its cluster of optics glowing like red eyes. They would quickly extinguish their lights once they had decided upon which tunnel to take, though they were travelling blind now, hopelessly lost in the maze of conduits.
Time had ceased to hold any meaning in the darkness, but at some point they came to a halt at another intersection, hot and tired, their adrenaline long since spent. Ryann strained to hear anything beyond the steady drip of moisture and the low moan of the ventilation system. He thought he could make out a distant sound of movement, but couldn’t tell in which direction it came from. All he knew was that the monster must still be active, stalking the ghostly corridors in search of them.
“I need to stop for a while,” he panted, slumping down to the damp floor. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get his breath back. He still felt shaky and desperately weak after the trials of the last hours, and wondered just how long it had been since he and Angelique had come aboard the Ibis. It felt like days that they had been traversing the dark ship.
“It looks like we might be coming up to another ventilation hub,” croaked Angelique through parched lips, briefly shining her flashlight down the shafts. “Sounds like the fans are getting louder.”
“I’ve been thinking,” muttered Ryann, his eyes still closed. “If we can’t damage the Spiner, then maybe we could get it off the ship — lure it into the Raven somehow, then cut it loose.”
“Lose the Raven?” asked Angelique in a shocked voice. “I can still patch her up — I just need to get her back to the Defiance — there are all the tools and spares we need there! There has to be a better way!”
“I’m all ears,” said Ryann dejectedly. They sat in a brooding silence, lost in their own dark thoughts.
“Come on then,” sighed Angelique at last, pulling herself to her knees, stooping in the low shaft. “Let’s try and get our bearings at the hub and see if we can get back to the Raven. I’ll be glad to get out of this damn maze anyway.” She crawled off and Ryann followed on close behind.
He froze as Angelique came to an abrupt halt, and he strained for any glimmer in the blackness. After a moment, he realised that he could make out a dim light up ahead beyond Angelique’s dark silhouette.
They crept forwards gingerly until they saw that the glow was coming up through a grilled floor section in the shaft ahead. They crawled up to the edge; Ryann had barely enough room in the shaft to squeeze alongside Angelique.
“I thought I heard something,” whispered Angelique, her mouth up close to Ryann’s ear, and together they peered down through the metal grill.
They found themselves looking down into the depths of the drive rooms, the squat shapes of the combustion chambers far below them. The work lights cast stark shadows upon the rusting walls. All was deathly silent.
“Perhaps there’s another way,” whispered Angelique as she stared down at the machinery, lost in thought. “If we could get the Spiner into one of those combustion chambers it would never be able to cut its way out of there — the walls are two metres thick.”
“Then, get the drives online, and boom — bye-bye Spiner,” replied Ryann with a grin. “Great idea, let’s get down there and see if we can work out how to lure it in.”
He stopped mid-sentence as he made out a quiet clicking sound, a rhythmical pulse ending with a faint echo that gave the impression of some ominous breath.
Angelique turned to Ryann wide-eyed, the fear stark upon her features. They remained motionless, as down below them, they saw a shadow appear upon the wall of the drive room. A long, spindly limb reached out in a slow, careful movement, and then another, and another, like the shadow of some monstrous clawed hand reaching out. And then the body of the Spiner came into view as it crawled silently along the wall, its legs spanning the gap to the nearest combustion chamber.
Ryann felt the cold sweat dripping down his back. He stared unmoving as the Spiner made its slow, deliberate progress, barely five metres below them. Its cluster of optics scanned the shadows this way and that.
The Spiner stopped suddenly, and Ryann felt his heart pounding in his chest. There was another stream of pulses from the machine, and then its optics suddenly swivelled in their mounts turning straight towards them.
“It’s seen us!” cursed Ryann, the fear snatching at his words. “Go!”
He pushed Angelique forwards and they dragged themselves across the grill panel as the Spiner gave out a terrifying screech of distorted pulses that sounded like some bestial scream. In an instant they heard the sound of its clawed legs driving into the metal as it pulled itself towards them, running up the walls.
“Go! Go!” screamed Ryann, and the grill burst open behind them as the Spiner crashed through the floor of the shaft. They fled for their lives, pulling themselves through the darkness on their hands and knees as the shaft erupted into chaos behind them. The Spiner tore and stabbed at the metal, tearing the floor open as it tried desperately to reach them, flailing wildly with its limbs.
The shaft erupted with light as the Spiner’s cutting laser seared through the walls, cutting the shaft in two, and Ryann felt a wave of heat at his back. He pointed his rifle behind him, blindly firing burst after burst, the noise deafening in the confined space. And then his gun fell silent, the magazine emptied. But he didn’t look back. He just dragged himself on in blind panic, expecting at any moment to feel the Spiner’s claws catch hold of him.
But thankfully the sound quickly receded as Ryann and Angelique raced on together. They could still hear the Spiner following behind them, but it was obviously too large to move quickly in such a confined space. The sound of its mechanical clicks and screeches echoed down the shaft as it continued to scan for them.
And then suddenly, all went quiet, and Ryann didn’t know which was worse, those inhuman calls or that terrible stillness, a silence that threatened to be torn away at any moment.
“Here! Down here!” hissed Angelique, the fear snatching at her words. Before he knew it, Ryann was tumbling out of an inspection hatch to find himself lying beside Angelique in an empty corridor.
He heaved himself to his feet, unable to think, just grabbing Angelique’s hand and pulling her up, desperate to run, anywhere, as long as it was away from that monster.
“No, this way!” he heard Angelique call out. “The drive rooms should be just down here!” She pulled him quickly down the corridor, stooping to avoid the pipes that clustered along the ceiling.
As they ran a sudden sound cut the air. It was a mournful, low screeching of metal, and as it rang throughout the ship Ryann felt the corridor shudder beneath his feet.
They both came to a sudden halt, Angelique turning back to Ryann, her face full of hope.
“That sounded like —”
“A ship,” breathed Ryann, finishing Angelique’s sentence. As if to affirm their hopes a great boom reverberated through the hull, the unmistakeable sound of a vessel docking alongside, the throb of its engines rattling the pipes in the corridor. “We’re saved.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE SPIDER'S WEB
“We need to get to the upper levels!” exclaimed Angelique, turning and heading off once more down the corridor at a run. “If we can find some stairs up to —”
Her voice trailed off as she pulled up to a sudden halt.
Ryann looked around in dismay; they had come out into the cathedral-like space of the drive room. The hall stretched off into the distance, the immense generators and combustion chambers towering over them.
“This isn’t good,” he muttered anxiously. He looked up to the ceiling and made out the torn-open maintenance shaft where they had been attacked by the Spiner only minutes before. “We do not want to be out in the open if that thing catches up with us!”
“Look, over there!” hissed Angel
ique, pointing to the far wall and an exposed elevator shaft. A set of steps beside it zig-zagged their way up to a high walkway.
“We better be quick! That Spiner can’t be far behind us.” He went to pull Angelique down a narrow row between two generator stacks but she resisted, searching around frantically. Letting go of his hand, she ran over to a control panel on the nearest bank of equipment.
“Angelique! We need to get moving!” hissed Ryann, glancing back towards the dark mouth of the corridor.
“I know! Just give me a second!” she replied, peering at the mass of valves and switches that controlled the generator stack. “Here!” she exclaimed, tracing the pipes that led off from the control panel with her fingers. She began frantically heaving at the valves, wrenching them open one-by-one.
“Hurry up!” whispered Ryann as he heard a series of crashes echoing along the corridor they had come down. He quickly swung the hatch closed, but its locking bolts had been burned through like all the others. With a curse he jammed his empty rifle into the mechanism, hoping it might at least slow the Spiner down. “It’s coming!”
“Then help me!” spat Angelique, struggling to get one of the valves open. Ryann paused in a moment of indecision, staring longingly across the hall towards the stairs, then stepped forwards, grabbing the valve with her.
“If we can get these open it should vent all the coolant gases from the generator stack,” said Angelique as they felt the valve move a little in their hands. “It should confuse the Spiner’s scanners.”
Then suddenly the valve came free, and jets of coolant gases shot from the top of the generator. They were instantly enveloped in a thick white cloud as a cacophony of alarms split the air.
Ryann heard a mechanical scream from the other side of the hatch and a moment later it buckled inwards with a deafening crash. He fell back, stumbling to the floor wide-eyed, but through the haze he could just make out that the door still held.
