by Jake Bible
"Doesn't mean he's safe," Roak said. Roak cocked his head. "You swear on your race that you aren't part of the trap?"
"Dude, I swear on my race and all races that I have no idea what trap you are talking about," Vogga said.
"That didn't answer his question," Yellow Eyes said. "Roak likes very specific answers or gets a little shooty."
"I swear on my race that I am not part of any trap at all," Vogga said.
"Good," Roak said and let go of his Flott. "Prove it by getting that clone goo into that bucket and following us back to the airlock."
"Airlock? Why?" Vogga asked.
"Because the Klav didn't try to create clones of me for security," Roak said. "They tried creating clones of me so they could kill me."
Roak sighed at the looks he received.
"Trust me," Roak continued. "I was built for survival. The Klav figured that out. They also figured out I'd be back here so they had that waiting for me."
Roak pointed at the goo.
"At the very least they were going to be able to study how we fought each other," Roak added. "If this one couldn't kill me then the next one would."
"Next one?" Vogga asked. "Dude, didn't you listen at all? This guy was a freak accident."
"Accidents can happen again," Roak said.
"Are they working with Father?" Yellow Eyes asked.
"No," Roak replied. "They're independent. They are working for themselves and they're trying to find leverage to either beat Father or at least survive him."
"Survive him," Yellow Eyes said thoughtfully. "So they clone the greatest survivor in the galaxy."
"Something like that," Roak said.
"Roak! Get to the airlock now!" Hessa shouted. "Pol is done with whatever he is done with and they are moving that way! He can't keep the Klav from seeing them retreat to the airlock, so move ass!"
"We gotta go," Roak said.
He waited.
Vogga looked from Roak to the goo to Yellow Eyes to the goo then back at Roak.
Vogga nodded and collected the clone goo in the bucket then hefted it up with one massive hand.
"You may say you don't like to kill, Roak," Vogga said, "but you killed the chill on this station, that's for Eight Million Gods damn sure."
They turned back to the lift. Then all three paused.
"Do you hear that?" Yellow Eyes asked.
"Yeah," Roak replied.
"Me too," Vogga said. "What is that?"
There was only about two seconds between Vogga's question and the answer.
An answer that came in the form of a panicked Skrang kid racing around the corridor's corner and running full tilt towards Roak and the other two.
"Ferg!" Skabz yelled, his arms waving over his head. "Rabid Fergs!"
"Oh," Vogga said then crammed his bulk into the lift as fast as possible.
"How bad can a few rabid Fergs be?" Yellow Eyes asked.
That answer took only one second.
Chasing after Skabz were wave after wave after wave of screeching, snarling, foaming at the mouth Fergs.
"You always have to ask," Roak said and shoved Yellow Eyes into the lift. He drew his pistol and took aim. "Duck!"
Skabz dropped to his ass and slid a good three meters as Roak opened fire on the horde of rabid Fergs. The screeches and snarls turned to wails and screams of pain. Rabid Ferg after rabid Ferg was obliterated by the Flott's laser cluster spread.
Skabz crawled under the laser fire until he reached the lift. He scrambled inside then slapped Roak on the leg.
"Let's go, old man!" Skabz shouted.
Roak ducked into the lift and Yellow Eyes slapped his nubs at the interface.
Nothing happened.
"Mr. Roak," a voice called over the speaker in the lift's ceiling. "We are disappointed."
"Just Roak!" Roak shouted and blasted the speaker.
"Well, no witty banter today then," Yellow Eyes said.
"Pol! Hessa!" Roak yelled. He checked the charge on his Flott and growled. "We're about to be overtaken by a horde of rabid Fergs!"
"I am unsure how to respond to that," Hessa said. "But I'll take your word for it. I'm trying to override the Klav and get the lift moving. But they are very clever."
"We're at the airlock," Pol called. "As soon as we're on the ship I'll be more able to - OH GODS!"
"Pol? POL!" Roak yelled.
"They have been attacked," Hessa said. "Reck and Poq are fighting off the… Oh, yes, rabid Fergs. That is an interesting security choice."
"Eight Million Gods damn brutal security choice!" Roak shouted back. "We need this lift moving, Hessa!"
"That is not going to happen," Hessa said. "The Klav have full control of the station, Roak. I barely got the airlock open so Pol, Reck, and Poq could get back on the ship."
Roak closed his eyes.
"You already disengaged," he said, knowing the answer. "I understand."
"That was alarming," Pol interrupted. "Not to worry, Roak, we'll get you out of the House of Teeth. Just stay alive long enough for me to crack the shielding and we'll moltrans you all to the ship."
"Got it," Roak said and looked over his shoulder at Vogga. "How much time?"
"What?" Vogga replied.
"How much time until that goo becomes me again?" Roak asked.
"Um, shit, dude, I wasn't keeping track," Vogga said.
"Three minutes," Yellow Eyes said. "No implants. No comm. No distractions." He pointed his nubs at the open lift doors. "Well, almost no distractions."
"They left us?" Skabz asked.
"Hessa, was that all wide?" Roak asked.
"It was," Hessa said. "Hard to maintain the connection with only you, Roak."
"They left us?" Yellow Eyes screeched. All of his nubs waved frantically in the air as he spun in circles. "I don't want to die like this! Not by Fergs! NOT BY FERGS!"
"Well, this is a bunch of terpigshit," Skabz said and checked his pistols. He looked at Roak. "How much charge do you have left?"
"Not enough," Roak replied.
"Dammit," Vogga said with a sigh. "I got this."
He shoved everyone out of the way and left the lift. Roak and Skabz followed right behind.
"I'll stay here with-" Yellow Eyes began to say right as the lift doors slammed shut.
"No!" Roak yelled, but it was too late.
He turned back to the rabid Ferg horde that was only a couple of meters away.
"This is going to hurt so much," Roak muttered as he lifted his armored fists and prepared for pain.
10.
Vogga took the brunt of the first wave.
The rabid Fergs flowed over him like water made of beings that were a cross between beavers and praying mantises. It was a very ugly flow of water.
Roak stared at the pile of rabid Fergs that engulfed the huge Chassfornian. Then he stepped to the side, took aim, and fired the Flott, sending his last laser cluster spread blast at the rabid Fergs behind Vogga's dog pile.
The pistol powered down and Roak tucked it back in its holster.
"Do whatever you can, kid," Roak said to Skabz.
"That ain't gonna be much, old man," Skabz said. "There was a reason I was running from those little fuckers."
Skabz tried to take aim, but the Vogga pile of rabid Fergs was moving around too much.
"To all the Hells with it," Skabz said and opened fire.
Blasts hit the rabid Fergs still oncoming. Blasts hit the dog pile of rabid Fergs covering Vogga. Blasts even penetrated that dog pile and apparently hit Vogga.
Then all the Hells really broke loose.
The Chassfornian roared in pain and the dog pile stopped being a dog pile almost instantly. Roak and Skabz had to flatten themselves on the floor to avoid being wiped out by flying rabid Fergs as they were flung from Vogga's thrashing body.
"NOT! COOL! DUDE!" Vogga roared.
He snatched up two handfuls of rabid Fergs then slapped his full hands together. Rabid Ferg pulp flew in all directions.
The Chassfornian grabbed more and more rabid Fergs, smashing each and every handful into each other, into the floor, into the walls, into the ceiling. Vogga was like a one-being garbage disposal taking big chunks and turning them into smaller and smaller chunks.
The corridor dripped with rabid Ferg flesh.
"That's one way to do it," Skabz said. He looked at the closed lift. "Doesn't fix our escape problem."
Skabz began to stand just as the lift doors exploded open. Roak snagged the Skrang kid by the leg and yanked him back down. Metal and plastic tore through the air above Roak and right where Skabz had just been standing.
"You…," Skabz began.
"Saved your little bitch ass," Roak said. "I know."
"Time to go!" Evil Roak shouted as he clambered up out of the lift shaft and stood over Roak and Skabz. "You first, kid."
Evil Roak grabbed Skabz by the armor and threw the Skrang kid down the lift shaft.
"I know, I know," Roak said and crawled to the edge. He looked down in the darkness. "What's going to catch us?"
"Never said anything would," Evil Roak said just as he gave Roak's backside a hard kick.
Roak tumbled over the edge and fell. Fast.
Roak knew pain like an old, trusted friend. But sometimes even old, trusted friends did unexpected things. Like fill a body with so much agony that all thought, all existence, proved to be too much. If Roak could have killed that old, trusted friend, he would have. Instead, the old, trusted friend tried to kill him.
Roak hit the bottom of the shaft and it was as if he was put on pause. The pain didn't arrive right away. But he knew it would. Because that much pain could be delayed, but never stopped.
"Wasn't my idea!" Yellow Eyes shouted as he yanked Roak out of the shaft and into a maintenance corridor where Skabz was leaning against a wall and repeating the word "OW" over and over.
The pain caught up to Roak.
"Get…this…armor…off…me," Roak said between gasps.
"Not the best idea, man," Yellow Eyes said. "I'm thinking that armor is all that's holding you together. We're probably gonna have to pour you out of there."
Roak did not argue with the being. Yellow Eyes was probably right.
Vogga slammed into the bottom of the shaft, his fur coated in Ferg blood and guts and excrement. The Chassfornian gasped, grunted, then rolled out of the shaft just as Evil Roak landed right where he'd been.
Unlike the others, Evil Roak landed on his feet. He winked at everyone, stepped from the shaft, slapped his palm against the lift's interface, then smiled as rabid Fergs plummeted from above and burst open like ripe melons just before the lift doors closed.
"Man…" Yellow Eyes said, wiping the gore from his face. "That ain't right." He blinked at the naked Evil Roak. "And that ain't right either."
"Where are we going?" Roak asked from his position on the floor.
"Different airlock," Evil Roak said. He pointed at Vogga. "You good, big guy?"
The Chassfornian stood there, his eyes wide. "I believe I remember who I was before all this…"
"That's good for you," Evil Roak said. "Stroll down memory lane later. But are we good? You and me?"
"You have tried to kill me a hundred times over the past few months, dude," Vogga said with a shrug. "But it's sounding like maybe we've both been played, so yes, we're good."
"I'm not good," Skabz snapped. "I have zero idea what is happening, but I did hear this naked son of a gump say there was a different airlock. If that means getting off this station then I can become good real fucking fast."
"No one cares what you think," Roak said and managed to lift his right hand. "I'll need a ride."
"Got ya, dude," Vogga said and picked Roak up.
Existence went swirly swirly and Roak struggled to maintain consciousness. His struggle was only halfway successful. He caught snippets of their flight through the maintenance corridors of the House of Teeth. But those snippets were overridden by an agonizing awareness that every single cell in his body was in pain.
Every. Single. Cell. In. Pain.
"Should we at least open his helmet to see if he's breathing?" Roak heard Vogga say.
"Won't change anything," Roak heard himself say.
No, not himself. The other one. Evil Roak.
Except he wasn't as evil as the Klav made the guy out to be. Which was a direct metaphor for Roak's entire life. Seemed fitting.
Roak caught a snippet of flashing lights and a blaring klaxon before his mind retreated into the less painful darkness. Not pain free, just less painful.
Then even the darkness couldn't keep back the entirety of Roak's excruciating now.
Pressure threatened to squeeze Roak through any and every crack in his armor. He screamed despite the fresh pain that caused. Roak wasn't even sure how he could feel anything anymore. Surely a nervous system would shut down or his body would go into shock and he'd die at some point.
But no such luck or relief.
All he knew was pain.
Then the pressure subsided and the pain dialed down one notch allowing Roak to form a coherent thought.
"Did…he…get…the…tech?" Roak croaked.
"Can't hear ya, dude," Vogga replied. "It's really uncomfortable in here."
"Where…?" Roak asked.
"We're in the airlock, man," Yellow Eyes said. "Hessa and Pol are fighting the Klav over control of the outer door. Not the best time I've ever had in an airlock."
"My head is going to pop!" Skabz screamed.
The pressure returned and Roak understood what the Skrang kid meant. He was waiting for his skull to explode and fill his helmet with Roak brains.
Beings were shouting and Roak felt his entire body fall then come to a sudden stop as if he'd been dropped and caught. The feeling repeated itself and Roak started to have trouble breathing. Another repeat and his lungs stopped working altogether.
Then the cold hit.
They'd been ejected.
Out into open space.
And Roak was one hundred percent certain that his armor was not sealed. The lack of ability to breathe and the cold that was overwhelming him were the giveaways. His instincts simply confirmed what physical reality was already telling him.
Roak was about to die.
"Not here," he muttered. "Not this way…"
He'd seen his death and he knew it was more than a dream. He knew that his fall from that cliff was real. Was a glimpse at his future. A glimpse at his release from a life, galaxy, universe that he hadn't asked to be part of.
"No, this is the way, man," Yellow Eyes said. "Ally has something set up in the cargo hold."
Roak wasn't sure how he could hear Yellow Eyes since the being didn't have a comm implant and sound didn't travel in space. There was no way Roak should have heard those words.
But he did.
He also had spoken words just before Yellow Eyes' response. And words took breath to create. Breath that came from lungs filled with air.
"Wait," Roak said.
"Dude, waiting is not an option for you," a voice said
Roak knew that voice, it was familiar, but he couldn't place it. It was a…new voice.
"Chass…fornian," Roak croaked.
"You got it, dude," the voice said.
"He's a big one," another voice said. "I am unsure if we have a med pod big enough to fit him."
Hessa. That was Hessa's voice.
"I'll instruct the bots to build one," yet another voice said.
Pol Hammon. The little fucker…
Roak chuckled. Then gasped. Then cried out. Then gasped again. Then went silent.
"Is he dead?"
Ally. Sweet, sexy, amazing Ally.
Roak was going to miss her.
No. Wait. He was breathing. They were talking. They were on the ship.
And heading to the cargo hold. Where Ally built something.
But Ally owned a tavern. Or did. She wasn't a tech like Pol or naturally gifted like Reck. Not
that there was a whole lot that was natural about Reck.
The tavern… Ally's tavern…
Yes. Something here.
"He's alive, but no idea for how long," Reck said.
That voice clicked instantly like Yellow Eyes' voice had.
Then they all clicked and their panicked voices overlapped in Roak's ears. They filled his head with their garbage noise. They were really annoying and starting to tick him off.
"He's going to be fine," Nimm said. "He just tried to reach for his Flott."
"Over here," Ally said. "Get him out of that armor."
"Are you certain this will work?" Hessa asked. "I am worried that-"
"It'll work," Ally said as Roak's helmet was lifted off his head. She kissed his brow. "I'm sorry for this."
Roak didn't have time to ask for what, but he didn't need to. Someone activated the emergency removal protocol in his armor and suddenly Roak was free and naked.
Pain like he'd never felt, which was saying something, was instantly followed by…relief?
There was still plenty of pain and agony, but it was no longer driving the ship.
Images of Ally's tavern filled his mind as the relief took hold. The bar. The tables. The stairs that led to Ally's apartment. The apartment itself.
Then a wall sliding open to reveal a pool of golden liquid.
Roak sighed and his entire body relaxed when he realized what was happening to him.
"Hold his head," Ally said. "He can drown in this."
"What is this stuff?" Nimm asked.
"Family recipe," Ally said.
"Yeah, you said that, but what-"
"Secret family recipe," Ally responded.
"I'll stop asking," Nimm said.
"I will not," Hessa said. "May I analyze the compound?"
"Good luck," Ally said. "Many have tried. No one has ever succeeded."
"That is an interesting challenge," Hessa said.
"Vogga," Roak whispered.
"Really, asshole?" Ally snapped. "I save your ass and you ask for the new guy?"
"Whiskey," Roak said. "Klav whiskey."
"Oh, right," Ally said. "We'd drink whiskey while we were…soaking."
"Soaking. Right," Yellow Eyes said.
"I ain't got no whiskey, dude," Vogga said, his voice sounding truly apologetic. "Bummer."
"All…good," Roak said. He let out a long, long sigh. "It's all good…"
