by Steve Perry
"Hi, Riley. Hi, Mason." The boss lady walked toward them smoothly, a smile of greeting on her lips. Speak of the devil.
Riley nodded back and Mason stepped forward. He dropped his cigarette on the dusty ground and squashed it with one boot.
"Ms. Noguchi," he said politely. "Mr. Shimura said you were coming. I'm to escort you to The Lector."
"Let me guess, Mason-Hiroki ordered you to follow me even if I declined your escort?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She nodded and sighed. "Well, come on then." She stepped ahead of him and headed toward the ship.
Mason glanced over his shoulder to see Riley grinning at him and shot him the finger; smarmy bastard. He jogged to catch up to Noguchi and walked in front of her. This would be a prime opportunity to tell the management what he had been thinking.
"You know, I think we're worrying too much. I mean, look at the size of the complex. You'd need an army to attack, right?" He looked back at Noguchi and stopped at the base of the ramp for her to catch up. She didn't answer, didn't even look at him, really. He might as well be talking to a block of plastecrete.
"I think those XTs are gonna take one look at Prosperity Wells and go back home," he continued. Fuck her, anyway. He stepped into the open door at the top of the ramp and pointed his scatter gun at nothing in particular; it was dark in there. He took another step inside and then turned his head to call back to the ice queen.
"Just give me a second to get the lights." He edged to the left and groped blindly with one hand. Something wet dripped on his hand.
"Hey," he said under his breath. Another drop of warm liquid splashed the top of his head. Fucking disgusting! Where was the goddamn light switch anyway?
He got the impression of sudden movement overhead-and then there was only pain.
Noguchi stood at the top of the ramp and listened to Mason babble mindlessly. Mason was something of a jerk, that was certain. He stepped into the dark and fumbled for the lights, still chattering away. She turned to look at him
-just in time to see him lifted straight up into the darkness. There was a strangled, wet cry
-and the darkness rushed forward to greet her, a dozen arms and a thousand teeth, all screaming, all hungry.
* * *
Chapter 16
Noguchi grabbed for the revolver in slow motion. The single patch of darkness separated into many forms; she fell backward as the dozen or so nightmares came at her.
What-?
She fired four times and stumbled down the ramp without looking. The deafening shots echoed from the walls and in her head and two of the things dropped.
She backed up against the shield wall, revolver extended toward the huge bugs, Jesus, they were half again her size! They came, but slower, their short, twisted limbs reached for her. They hissed and cried out like demented banshees. Double rows of teeth snapped and dripped a clear, slimy mucus.
Noguchi didn't take her gaze off them, even as she heard more of the things come down the ramp.
She was going to die-
She panted shallowly and backed farther up the incline, revolver heavy in her trembling hands.
Another of the bugs rushed forward with a scream. She jerked the trigger again and again. The thing howled in fury and pain and fell-
She fired again, only-the shots were quiet, dull clicks. The gun was empty.
Was there more ammunition on the belt? Did she have time to reload?
Yes. No.
The nightmares advanced; she backed up, her last moment of life. Nothing flashed before her eyes save the horror coming for her; no memories, fond or otherwise, came to haunt or comfort her. She was in the moment and in this moment, the leading bug cried out and jumped-
-and a hollow thump sounded behind her, as if something had imploded. A rush of heat stirred her hair, and the creature closest flew backward in a rain of hissing liquid, its head gone.
The horde screamed in unison but stayed at the bottom of the wall, their dark limbs clattering on the ground in-anger?
Noguchi risked a glance behind her.
The dragon-?
It was the monster, masked and armored. It held the spear with the broken shaft-except it was whole now, the long pole mended; the heavy dark weapon it held was slightly different-
It wasn't the creature from the med lab. It was one of the others, the killers.
It aimed the weapon at her and fired.
Noguchi felt a cry escape her throat-
-and another of the bugs exploded behind her.
She looked back down at the advancing army and felt a rush of air again behind her.
The monster warrior leapt over her and landed on the pack of seething black bugs.
Noguchi could do nothing but stare.
The dragon fell into battle, its movements so swift she could barely follow them. The savage spear sliced and cut another bug in pieces. Another shot from the strange weapon and dismembered limbs clattered to the ground.
The blood of the dark spidery bugs hissed and melted into the plastecrete; some kind of acid-?
She couldn't tell from the screams which was which. As the warrior spun and hacked two of the bugs at once, a flash of Noguchi's childhood came to her
-Samurai-
More of the bugs came down the ramp, scrabbled wildly to get at the warrior.
Noguchi, still unable to move, looked on at the storm of death and battle.
Gkyaun had been sent in to scout, but the Hunting he had found was too good to walk away from. Here was a sickly, pale ooman---with no defense! He had watched as the cowering ooman's small burner died, then as the kainde amedha swarm approached the ooman. It did not seem able to defend itself. Where was its spear? Its wrist knives? This terrified creature was the monster of which he had been frightened as a suckling? It was a joke.
The ooman was thei-de without him; he would save the ugly creature for later.
First, the Hard Meat
Gkyaun's heart hammered with glory as he caught the ooman's attention by burning the first drone. The drone exploded.
The others cringed, drew back, looked upon him with the respect befitting a Blooded warrior. On some deep cellular level, they knew his kind. Knew the danger he presented.
This dtai'kai'-dte was nothing! He could have won in infancy! Yautja would cry his name this night, victor of drone and ooman alike. He would bring the ooman's blackened skull to drink from
He fired again, and was again rewarded with a shower of acidic thwei. The Hard Meat screamed in loss.
Gkyaun howled the war cry and jumped. He landed amid the hissing drones and moved among them like the setg-in, deadly and quick. So easy! He spun and slashed, burned and cut at the same time.
Two bugs fell with one slice of his spear.
A drone from behind lost its head; he gutted yet another.
He was Paya, the conquering warrior! Thwei ran at his feet, the Hard Meat shrank in terror-!
More came at him, a relentless flow of fury and sound. He pivoted, Hunted, his every movement was an arc of doom and pain.
Noguchi gulped air and pushed herself backward, toward the top of the shield wall. The warrior was a dervish of wild energy and prowess-the nightmare creatures fell all around him.
But more monsters flooded toward him. And despite the fighter's speed and strength, he fought poorly; he hadn't allowed for any outcome other than victory. It was as if he were a karateka who had mastered kata, but had never faced an opponent in actual combat . . .
The clamoring dark animals surrounded him, pulled him down. The warrior struggled, but to no avail; one of the giant bugs ripped off his mask with one spidery clawed arm and plunged its razor teeth forward-
Noguchi scrambled backward and to her feet, atop the wall. She ran back toward the complex and didn't look back. The cries of hunger and triumph followed her, told her the warrior was no more.
What were these things? What new disaster had come to visit them?
* * *
Chapter 17
The noise came from a million klicks to his right. It was a familiar sound, one he had known for a very long time, back on Earth, from before he knew what it meant.
He felt his consciousness as it rose upward, swam to the surface of a depthless abyss-the knowing part of him, the tomes of understanding. He fought to keep it from happening, but was helpless to stop it. There was something that he didn't want to know, was terrified of knowing . . .
The sound again. Scott? Scott, are you?
Scott?
Scott was him. The blissful nothing dwindled away as the aches in his body stepped in to greet him, coupled with a horrible, consuming hunger.
"Scott?"
Scott opened his swollen eyes to blackness and took a deep breath. He almost choked on the cloying, wet air.
"Scott, are you awake? Can you hear me?"
He coughed, the minor movement sparking a thousand pains. "Yeah." He swallowed gummy spittle and turned his head toward the voice. "Tom?"
"I think I can get my arm free," the other pilot said.
Scott couldn't see him, but his friend was only a few meters away from the sounds of hurried struggle.
The rest of the nightmare clicked in to place. "Where did they go?" Scott strained to see in the dark room, memories of hissing motion and giant teeth adding sharp panic to his dull and clouded mind. "Tom, did you see them? Where did they all go?"
"Shh! I'm almost out-" A grunt of exertion and Tom's welcome face appeared in front of him, grimy, fearful, pale.
"Hurry! Jesus, where did they go? Get me out of this, hurry, please!"
"Be quiet!" Tom spoke in a harsh whisper and reached for Scott's immobilized hands. The ropes of resinous dark material holding him in place snapped and crumbled to the floor.
Tom glanced over his shoulder every other second, eyes wide.
As soon as one of his arms was free, Scott tore at the weird matter at his midriff and leg-and tumbled to the floor.
He had been suspended a half meter in the air.
Tom slipped an arm around his waist and helped him up, speaking quickly and quietly.
"They were all around us, and something happened outside, I guess; they swarmed out of here like mad bees, and I didn't know if you were here-" Tom seemed to realize he was babbling and cut himself off.
"It's okay, man. Let's just get the hell out of here, okay?"
Leaning on each other heavily, they stumbled toward the emergency hatch. It was hard to see anything, but Scott could make out areas of the dock where the shadows were denser, more solid.
A raspy breath came from one of the darker corners of the room. Scott stopped and turned toward the noise. At first he couldn't see what was the cause-and then he was unable to believe what he saw.
It was one of the creatures.
It was bigger than the others. Its huge, flattened skull was curved downward, its limbs drawn up in front of its dripping jaws. The thing was curled up, a horrible caricature of the human fetal position.
"I think it's asleep," Tom said softly. "It hasn't moved since before all the other ones left."
Scott couldn't pull his gaze away from the dormant monster, the slow rise and fall of the thing's furled body with each slow breath. It was the most frightening thing he had ever seen, like a giant spider-lizard with knives for teeth, deadly, insectile. Strings of sticky goo fell from its jaws, the dim light from the partly opened dock door reflected in the glistening slime.
"Let's go before she wakes up," Tom whispered urgently.
"She-?" Scott shook his head and looked at the pilot, but Tom was already pulling him toward the hatch.
"Yeah," Scott whispered back. He wanted nothing more than to get the fuck out of there. Get help, get weapons; just see another human face. But as they hurried to their escape, Scott glanced over his shoulder to look at the thing once again. Where had they come from? What were they capable of? There was something strangely familiar about them . . .
He did a double take. His heart pounded. The angle of the creature's head seemed to have changed slightly . . .
"Come on!" Tom pulled at his arm.
Scott nodded mutely and followed. There would be time to think about why later, not now, not fucking now . . .
Scott shuddered as they reached the emergency hatch. The thing was frighteningly similar to the picture in his head of the jabberwock, from that old poem.
He had the sudden, certain feeling that this was far from being over with.
Noguchi ran through the deserted streets of Prosperity Wells. There was distant thunder, harsh and unreal
Thunder? She grabbed for the comset around her neck, feeling like an idiot for not having thought of it before; everything had happened so fast.
"Hiroki, this is Machiko! Do you read?" ,
A hiss of static, and then thunder assaulted her ears. She twisted the volume switch in a panic. Not thunder. Gunfire.
"Hiroki! Come in, please!"
"... achiko?" The reception was bad, but it was him. The sound of his voice was music.
"Listen, I'm approaching the south lock. We're in real trouble, you're not going to believe this!"
"At this point, I'd believe anything," Hiroki said. His usual calm was gone, replaced by tension and worry. The sounds of weapon-fire clattered loudly through the coin, blocking out whatever he said next.
"Hiroki? Where are you?" Her thoughts buzzed and clamored loudly as she stopped in the street and listened. Nothing. "Hiroki? Are you there?" Her voice cracked in tension.
". . . welding the inner doors of the west lock. We'll hold them off as long as . . ." Static. ". . . wish we could see what the hell we're . . ."
Noguchi slapped the receiver, hard. "I can't hear you!"
His next words came through clearly. "Get everyone to The Lector," he said. And the com fuzzed out.
"No!" she breathed. "Hiroki?"
He was gone. There had to be another way! The Lector wasn't an option anymore, there was nowhere to go
Noguchi ran toward the main well, where Riley and Mason had been only a few moments before. Riley would still have his weapon, they could
Riley lay facedown in the dust, the late sun shining on the pool of red that had formed around him. The dry soil drank deeply; even as she watched, the blood drained into the earth, leaving a wet stain of crimson mud. A large hole had been punched through Riley's back, the ragged edges raw and meaty. His rifle lay nearby.
She ran to the fallen form and crouched next to it. She pressed numb fingers to Riley's throat and gagged on the thick, metallic scent of fresh blood. No pulse.
"Shit," she whispered. She looked around, eyes wide. The warriors, like the one that had saved her life
She reached for Riley's rifle quickly, stood. And heard a sound right behind her, nothing so much like a sharp intake of breath. It wasn't Riley, that was certain. She turned in slow motion-
-and saw nothing. She let out a sigh of relief. There was a lot to be worried about, but no immediate threat, at least.
That was when the earth rose up, the dust wavering in the dimming light, to knock her to the ground.
* * *
Chapter 18
Tichinde led the willing yautja into battle as the light grew shallow on the arid world. The kwei oomans had barricaded themselves behind a heavy door, their stingers on the outside but controlled from within. Their weapons were hot and deadly, their fire had already taken two of the warriors before Tichinde had decided to pull back and organize a stronger attack. Tricky devils, to hide behind the door and kill from a distance.
There were now only six other students left. They crouched behind one of the ooman structures and looked to him for command. Any doubt Tichinde had felt after watching two of his yautja fall evaporated as he saw the eager Hunters before him; Mahnde and Daec'te had been slow and foolish, but these warriors would go on to the victory Hunt.
"Skl'da'-si, you will be hult'ah and stand behind." Skl'da'-si had the best eyes; they wo
uld need sharp vision to watch for any ooman who might be waiting to ambush.
The yautja tilted his head and stepped away from the rest.
"It is time for the Hunt of naiv-de," the new Leader growled. He raised his voice steadily as he spoke the truth aloud to the others. "Time to kill until the pyode amedha trophies sit on our spears, until their thwei flows in our honor and the fight is done. A thousand stories will be sung in our names, for we will conquer!"
Tichinde flared his mandibles in pleasure at the low hisses that came from his warriors. They were ready.
It was Etah'-dte who began the chant of the Midnight Kiss. One by one, the yautja raised their spears and voices to the sky, the screams true and harsh in the dry dead air of the ooman world. Tichinde howled loud and long with his warrior brood; the Soft Meat would die in scores this night, and he would Lead the slaughter.
The Hunt was all.
Noguchi scrabbled backward on her elbows from her bizarre attacker.
There's nothing there-!
Even as the thought popped into her head, the magnified dust rippled and changed. One of the warriors suddenly towered over her, its thick arms high over its head. The spear it held was pointed at her.
Earlier, in the ship, she had forgotten in her panic that she'd had a rifle strapped on her back. She remembered now.
She swung the heavy rifle up.
Too slow. Time expanded, flowed like thick oil. It took a millennium to thrust the weapon against her shoulder and aim-
Darkness sprang and covered the dragon.
From the main well structure behind the creature, the metallic black bugs shrieked and swarmed and fell on him, their talons fast and sharp.
