The doctor was pushed back as thick, fluidic air rushed into the vacuum of the ship. The soldiers held tight to the rails as the cabin filled. Alice could feel her suit adjusting to the new environment. It felt like wearing a wetsuit and swimming in heavy surf, and there was a current to the pressure as it filled the small cabin. Not a true liquid, the air simply had a thick property with tiny specks floating within. She turned on her suit HUD and increased magnification on one of the specks. A microscopic creature, almost like plankton, wriggling in the air, swimming.
“Is this what they breathe?” Alice asked. “It’s no wonder we haven’t seen any live. They must need this stuff to breathe and eat at the same time like a … a…”
“Like a whale,” Demsiri finished. “They must filter the atmosphere and feed on the nutrients.”
“I think this just went from being a deer tick to being Jonah,” Baron said. “I hope you guys know where you’re going. It looks awfully dark in there.”
Alice looked back to the open hatch and agreed. There was absolutely no light from beyond. This close to the skin, they had theorized that the creature had only non-essential life functions. They assumed they would find storage of food containment chambers. Instead of activating lights, Alice turned on her passive sensors and passed through the narrow hole held open by the ring. Metallic spikes had extended past the armor and flesh, holding the passage open, but it was a tight fit. Gregor followed with his team and finally Demsiri. The doctor had been surprisingly eager to come along despite his refusal to carry a weapon. Alice had agreed, thinking he would be needed if Lee was hurt or needed medical attention.
The room was roundish and wide and several stories tall. Gravity shifted as she stepped from the hole and suddenly it felt like being able to walk up a wall, but the wall was slick and damp. Instead of crates, the area was filled with jelly-like globs containing billions of the tiny krill.
“It is food storage,” the doctor said as he examined the globs. “Or maybe a breeding ground. I doubt we’ll encounter many of them here. I mean, how many times do we ever go down to food storage on Resolute?”
“Why have the lights not activated?” Gregor said, swiveling his weapon to look in all corners. “If this is ship, why no lights?”
“Perhaps the food is light sensitive,” the doctor replied, pressing a finger into the jellied glob. “Maybe we’re just too different for the sensors to pick up.”
“Maybe there’s a switch,” Alice said. “I mean, maybe humans are just lazier than these guys so we made sensors for the light. It’s possible, right?”
“Alright, let’s cut the chatter and move,” Gregor said after a moment. “Anyone see a door?”
The team spread out, each scanning for an entrance or panel to open a door. Alice was surprised at the number of containers for the krill. Each one was a dark mass containing billions of the creatures. She began to wonder at the size of the crew these things were feeding. They must have ruptured one of the globules and released the creatures into the pod. The more she searched, the more of the globules she saw, hanging from the ceiling and growing from the walls. There seemed to be no exit from the room and the team regrouped back in the center.
“So what now?” asked Gregor. “Do we go back and drill new hole?”
“There has to be a way into—”
There was a blast of white light from one of the circular walls. Instead of a panel, the wall simply melted away from the bulkhead. Expecting to see a shadow cast by an approaching crewmember, Alice looked to the bright light. Her visor instantly darkened to shield her vision, but she still made out a shape in the light, her head beginning to hurt as she tried to make out edges. The longer she looked, the angrier she became. Rage seemed to consume her as the figure stepped into the room, illuminating the globules and throwing stark shadows on the walls. A vaguely insectoid shape bordered by projections resembling wings entered the room. Wide eyes stared back at the team as the wall closed behind it. She realized the figure wasn’t standing in the light, it was the light. A bioluminescent shell covered the creature’s body. Its resemblance to Ch’Tauk was subtle but definite.
She looked around to see the other members of the team writhing in agony. Demsiri seemed to be the only one still on his feet as the creature advanced, making a screeching sound followed by a clicking of its hard mandibles. Alice grabbed for Gregor. The big man had fallen to his knees. The team’s screams in her comm was deafening. She took the rifle from the big man’s hands and slammed explosive projectiles into the creature’s chest. It let out a terrifying series of shrieks and wails as the bullets burst inside its body. Alice did not stop firing until the creature had fallen back into one of the globules, its light sputtering but still blinding.
As Alice watched, the globule burst and flooded the air with more of the tiny creatures. The alien she assumed was a Gizzeen began to flail in the liquid mess. Brown krill covered its body, swarming over the bright light and obscuring the creature from view. It took nearly a minute before the Gizzeen stopped thrashing, and in that time its light dimmed to a dull glow. Finally, the light extinguished altogether and it stopped moving. The krill left the body and began to float on the air placidly.
In her scanner view, the creature looked like a larger version of a Ch’Tauk. Its armor had gone black and, save for the wing projections, it appeared to be no more dangerous than a Ch’Tauk.
“Incredible,” Demsiri said. “Bioluminescence draws the attention of the food source, but in higher concentrations the food becomes the predator. This is an amazing biosphere.”
“Doctor,” Alice called, breaking the man’s reverie. “What about the others?”
Demsiri shook his head and looked. Gregor and his men were still on the ground. Only the big soldier showed any sign of recovering, trying to stand. The doctor moved to the man’s side and ran a scanner over him. Gregor pushed the man away and waved to his men. One by one, the doctor checked the others until he came back to Alice.
“Physically they’re okay,” the doctor reported. “Pulse is high and their acetylcholine levels are off the chart. I’d guess each of them is dealing with something like traumatic stress right now. They’ll need some counseling when we get back, but I think they can move.”
“What do you mean stress?” Alice asked. “Why didn’t we go down too? Why did I get so angry at that thing?”
Alice, ever since you got back from the Ch’Tauk prison camp, you’ve been dealing with stresses beyond what any of us have seen,” Demsiri said. “I think it didn’t affect you because you are already dealing with it. Your mechanism for dealing with all this is anger. Mine is depression and diving into my work. We weren’t disabled because we are already damaged.”
The realization of what the doctor said was startling. She knew she wasn’t dealing with grief well, but the idea that her anger was a sign of a traumatic stress disorder was frightening. As she thought about the crew, she realized the others had been dealing with their grief as well. Henry had turned to alcoholism and self-destructive behavior, and justified it by searching for his lost wife. Gregor, as a trained killer, wasn’t prone to the disorder as much as she and the others, but he had shown some signs of resistance.
“We need to move,” Alice said. “If that thing was supposed to check in with someone, they’ll know he’s gone.”
“So we need to open the door,” Gregor said, taking his gun back from the woman. “Did anyone see how he did it?”
The team moved to the bulkhead where the Gizzeen had entered. Each tried waving their hands and looking for a panel. There were no seams on the wall or indication of where the door should be. Alice went back to the body and looked. She grabbed one of the arms and pulled. She was forced to brace her feet against the creature’s body as she twisted hard until something gave. There was a sharp crack as the armored bone broke loose from the joint. She brought the arm back to the bulkhead and pressed it to the wall. The same melting effect of the wall occurred and they were in. She s
lung the arm over one shoulder and followed the others through the door and into the next area.
To protect themselves, the team switched to full virtual scan and blackened their visors. The area around them was immense. The Gizzeen interior space resembled a cavern with stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There was still no light as they followed their directions further into the ship. Each time the area brightened, the team took up hiding spaces behind one of the growing pylons in the chamber. They passed dozens of Gizzeen along the way, each chittering and clicking away as if they weren’t about to cause the destruction of an entire galaxy. Alice was thankful now she had begun to use the full virtual view. Had she gotten angry each time, the team would have been dead.
They moved as stealthily as they could through the massive rooms. Gizzeen architecture seemed to shun walls in favor of vast working spaces. Like the Ch’Tauk, their ships appeared sparsely populated. Though while the Ch’Tauk used automation, the Gizzeen relied on the creatures they enslaved as ships to run most functions. It was a nightmare of darkness and light, and Alice was thankful they reached the area where Lee was supposed to be held.
Despite wanting to rush in, Alice knew they had to wait. Gregor directed the group into teams. Each staked out a separate area where Gizzeen were entering and leaving. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably closer to ten minutes, one of the guards clicked their comm and called the others over. The woman motioned to the nearby bulkhead and waved—the signal for a possible contact. Alice unshouldered the arm and moved to the wall. As the bulkhead melted, Gregor stepped into the open doorway and scanned with his rifle. Satisfied there was no one in the room, he entered, followed by the others.
The room was not as large as some they had been through, and contained only a single shaft of white light. Alice moved towards what appeared to be an altar in the middle of the room. On the altar was a body.
“Lee?” Alice said, switching the visor back to translucent and opening the speaker on her helmet. “Lee, is that you?”
The body wasn’t moving on the slab. As she moved closer, she saw the shadows of his face and knew. He had grown a thick beard and was thinner than she remembered, but it was him. She ran to his side, hoping he was still alive, grasped his hand and looked closer at his face. Over his mouth was a creature which appeared to be breathing. Gills filtered the thick air and kept the krill from getting near. Apparently the light was not attracting them to his body. She felt his chest and sensed movement in his lungs. Demsiri stepped up and ran a scanner over the body. When she looked up, he nodded to her.
“He’s alive,” he said over the comm. “His body is stressed beyond belief and he’s malnourished … but alive. Talk to him. See if you can bring him out of this.”
Lee?” Alice said. “It’s me, Alice. Lee you have to wake up. We have to—”
“No, Alice,” Demsiri said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Talk to him. You need to bring him back to the here and now. Go ahead.”
Alice thought for a long minute as Gregor opened a channel to the pod. The team was now readying for the trip back to the ship and their escape. If they had to carry Lee’s unconscious body through the ship, it would complicate matters. She thought of what would rouse the man. Off all the things she could say, only one came to mind as something he might respond to.
“Princess to Flyboy,” Alice said. “Form up on my wing.”
“Princess?” Lee’s voice said through the mask. “I think you mean … form on my wing. I’m Demon One.”
“That’s it,” Gregor said. “He’s awake. Let’s move.”
29
Their passage back through the massive vessel was complicated by having to carry a naked man. The pressure suits the team wore were made of a light-absorbing material, making them difficult to spot in the darkness. Lee, on the other hand, had become pale and weak during his captivity and needed assistance to move. He was also delirious with lack of food and water and kept passing out. One of the guards held him up while they moved from one stalagmite pillar to the next in search of cover. It made the trip back to the food storage room slow and dangerous. Several times the lights appeared from one end or another of the cavernous rooms and the team was forced to take cover. Lee was talking quietly to himself the whole time.
“I should sedate him,” Demsiri said, taking out his med-kit. “We’ll never get out of here like this.”
“He’s walking, and that makes him better than a dead body,” Gregor replied, scanning the nearest room for occupants. “Just keep him quiet until we get there.”
Alice looked back at Lee with concern. He had lost weight and looked older. The growth of beard was out of sync with the time he had been gone, and after that one brief moment of lucidity he seemed lost to the real world. There were no marks on his body, or bruising, but he occasionally grunted as if in pain. She had seen the effects of the Gizzeen on the other team members with their visors on. She could only imagine what he had endured at full exposure. Despite everything, though, he had still looked back at her and smiled. She wasn’t sure if it was genuine or a hallucination, but the smile made her feel at ease with him. Just as he had helped her recover from her capture, she would help him with his.
On her visor, Alice saw they were near where the pod was docked. Gregor and his team scouted ahead to ensure there were no Gizzeen in the area before motioning for her to open the door. The arm pressed against the bulkhead and it melted away. There was a puff of motion as the krill creatures released by the Gizzeen’s death escaped. Demsiri and the guard with Lee moved first as Alice and the rest covered the room. As she was making her own way in, a flash of light from behind drew her attention back. A small group of Gizzeen, maybe five by their brightness, had entered from the far wall and were making their way to the food storage room.
“Inside!” Gregor hissed as his team backed to the door. “Get the captain out first. We’ll hold the door.”
“We all go together,” Alice called back. “We can get out before they get here.”
“They’ve already seen us,” Gregor said, waving the woman off. “Get out now.”
Through the helmet, Alice heard a whine of energy weapons firing. Blasts of blue death cut through the space around them as she pushed further into the hold. Gregor and his team returned fire, sending projectiles racing back towards the enemy. A deep thrumming began and a dim green glow suffused the room. She grabbed Lee from the female guard and lifted his arm over her shoulder. Demsiri took the other arm and together they moved towards the hatch. She could still make out the ring and the thick pieces of metal which held the tissue apart.
“Go through first,” Demsiri said. “I’ll push him through to you.”
“You go, I need to stay and help,” Alice replied, shoving Lee forward towards the hole. “I can’t just leave them here.”
“You can and you will,” Demsiri said. “We sacrificed everything to get this man back. I’m not gonna let you give it all up now. I need to see you two dance at the wedding.”
Alice turned back to see Gregor at the door. He was standing just inside, turning to fire off shots alternately with one other member of his team. There was a body on the floor with a burnt hole through the torso. As she watched, one of the Gizzeen burst through the opening. The big man fired into it but there was another just behind. As he raised his gun to fire, the Gizzeen swung a long, luminescent arm and slammed it into the body of the female guard. Blood erupted as her suit shredded. The helmet comm transmitted her final scream as she was torn apart. The other guard fired, removing a chunk of the Gizzeen’s lumpy skull, but the creature kept moving. Alice wanted to help, but Demsiri pulled her shoulder.
“Go!” Gregor shouted over the comm. “Get out now!”
She saw the big man leap at another alien as it stepped through the door. He grappled with the creature, spinning the larger being around, lifting it from the ground. As the creature flailed, one of its bladed arms sliced through Gregor’s suit at the shoulder. The Ru
ssian let out a howl but held tight. He tossed the Gizzeen at one of the globules and watched as the buzzing krill swarmed the beast.
Alice was pulled through the hole and towards the hatch. She had to crawl through as the flesh of the ship had begun to heal around the metal. She kept looking back as the din of the struggle clashed across the comms. Repeated blasts of energy weapons came to a stop as a final scream was heard from the guard. Gregor was still screaming in Russian at the alien invaders. For a moment, a white light entered the hole behind her only to be dragged back out. As she crossed into the hatchway, Alice turned and aimed her own pistol down the hole. Light flickered and danced in the open portal as Gregor continued to fight. When she could hear his breathing no more, she pressed the panel to close the hatch.
“We need to go,” Baron said. “I think they know we’re here now.”
Alice felt the whole ship heave. She turned to see Lee being strapped into the only seat left in the small pod. The tiny vessel had seemed so cramped before and now felt empty as she realized how many losses they had taken.
“I have to release the clamp,” Demsiri said. “The whole cabin will depressurize if I don’t.”
“Let it go,” Alice said. “Baron, release the ship.”
“Hang on,” the pilot replied, pulling a lever with his artificial hand and tapping the thrust buttons.
Alice was thrown against the hull as the ship lurched away. She could hear objects thumping against the pod as the cabin behind depressurized. In her mind she knew some of those objects were the bodies of her friends, but some were their enemies too. The pod was being pushed by the force of the ejected atmosphere inside the ship. Her head was spinning as the pod began to tumble. As it did, she was thrown against the bulkhead from one side to the other. She finally stopped as Demsiri’s hand grasped hers and pulled her to a rail.
“Baron,” Alice called. “Get us out of here before they start firing.”
“Really,” the man replied, “I hadn’t thought of that. That damn ship began to grow onto our hull, Doc. I’m tethered.”
Resolute Glory (The War for Terra Book 8) Page 23
