by Ken Bebelle
Even as she spoke the words, she knew the wolf was more accurate. Like the wolf, the Ringheads were apex predators. AJ was an evolving remnant of the Ringhead technology left behind on Earth. No surprise that AJ would move up the food chain. Cam was starting to worry just how high up that food chain AJ would go.
They turned to head back to the Greedle, with AJ shadowing Cam. Cam knew no one would care if she slept in the Greedle or on the jumpship, and her two months spent clearing out the Greedle more than staked her claim on it. But the last thing she wanted was to take ownership of the massive alien construct. The idea of sleeping inside it felt like giving up some last, essential part of herself.
It had been her prison, and worse, it had been the place where the Ringheads had changed her forever. I’m not sleeping there ever again.
So she made her way to the ice cave she had carved for herself nearby. When she was inside her ice cave, she didn’t have to look at the Greedle or the jumpships. She didn’t need to sit on alien biomatter chairs that would conform to her body and her thoughts. Cam could pretend for just a while longer that she was a human. Just a human ice camping under an alien terraforming device.
A tall curved archway stood before her now, about eight feet high. Intricate leaf patterns wove up from the permafrost to twine in the middle at the point above the doors. It looked like something straight out of Narnia. Cam had spent days carving those. Maybe she went a little overboard. It wasn’t like she ever had guests. Hell. It wasn’t like she even needed doors.
Cam let out a quick puff and her visor came down, completely encasing her head. She stomped her feet in rapid succession and the discs slid back into her boots. She took a quick look around, and walked through the ice wall. She still held her breath when she did it. She couldn’t help it. A cool, tingling sensation started around her foot and rushed up her leg to envelop her body as her suit displaced the solid ice of the door. Cam floated through the two foot thick door, her armor filling in the ice behind her. AJ had taught her this trick. She hadn’t told Abbé or Beaufort about it.
There was a lot she wasn’t telling them these days.
AJ melted into the interior of the cave a half step behind her. The inner surface of the door shimmered like still water as it solidified behind them. The cave darkened as the shimmer on the door faded to the edges. Her visor snicked up as Cam put her hand to the wall and waited a beat.
Nothing happened.
AJ looked up at her, another question in those glowing blue eyes.
Cam dropped her hand and let out a frustrated breath. “I’m tired. It’s hard to focus when I’m tired.”
AJ snorted and walked in a little circle before curling up on the floor at her feet, a puddle of jet black fur. Apparently this was her way of saying that she could wait all day if need be.
Cam blew out another breath and put her hand back on the wall. It was like using some tiny muscle that she never knew she’d had. Pushing and stretching it to wretched achiness each day. Remolding the armor was easier. This was harder.
She increased the pressure on her hand, trying to physically press her will into the ice. It didn’t really work that way, but that was how she imagined it. Crisp pinpoints of sweat sprung up on her forehead. AJ could do this in a heartbeat, but Cam wasn’t going to let herself get used to leaning on AJ. She could fly the jumpship, how hard could it be to turn on the lights in her own damn house?
A soft whine came up from the floor and Cam gritted her teeth, trying to block out the noise. She cursed under her breath. “Dammit, girl, I’ve almost got it…”
Something in her mind shifted, and then she was in. Her will slipped into the ice, the way her armor had slipped into the door. The chill of the ice wrapped around her mind. Cam opened her eyes and saw the Arctic sun slipping into its early twilight. Snow devils twirled and danced on the winds across the barren landscape around her.
Cam flexed that small muscle and the ice came alive under her will. A diffuse glow filled the interior of the cave with soft light. She closed her eyes and smiled. Stan would love to see this, if she would ever show it to him. Cam pulled her hand away from the wall, feeling her mind return and slide back into place like a key in a lock. She was drenched in sweat, her bangs matted to her forehead, her legs trembling with fatigue. Another plaintive whine came from behind her.
Cam turned. “AJ--”
She didn’t finish. AJ lay sprawled on the floor, legs twitching a rapid staccato. A thin trickle of foam leaked from the corner of her muzzle and her bright eyes were rolling and wild.
Only then did Cam feel the sick twisting in her gut and feel the ragged gasp of breath in her chest. She took a step towards AJ and her leg buckled beneath her, sending her to her knees. Cam grunted like she’d been kicked in the gut. She reached out her arm to catch herself and a blinding flash of agony speared through her forearm underneath the Star. Pain, bright and sharp as a knife blade traced its way through her arm and wrenched a wail from her lips.
Cam rolled to her side, clutching her arm to her chest. The alien stone pulsed with dull green light in a steady beat matching the throbbing agony in her arm. She clenched her jaw as pain raced up the back of her neck and gripped her skull. Her eyes closed tight, and she collapsed, smashing her forehead against the icy floor. Bright bursts of pain danced across her vision at the impact. Cam wanted to moan from the pain but she couldn’t unlock her jaw. Her breathing grew labored, short wheezes and her heartrate skittered in a frantic race against the mounting agony.
She rolled and bumped into AJ’s tense body, one forepaw pawing uselessly at the air. Making contact with the wolf brought her a small measure of relief.
The massive wolf whined, now nipping Cam’s hand weakly.
“Ow!” Cam yanked her hand back, the pain helping her
her thoughts turned into a chilling wave of fear.
“Oh my god! AJ, the babies!”
A flood of images poured into Cam. The rapid fire images blurred and melded into a giant gray wolf looming over her. The wolf’s coat faded, the color running out, leaving a white so pale and bright it looked blue at the edges. Several smaller wolves clung to the white wolf’s pelt. The smaller wolves whined and cowed, many of them maimed, missing legs, bleeding. One of them turned and looked directly at Cam, its right eye a ruin of black gore and burrowing insects.
The white wolf grinned, the mouth huge and over filled with knife-like teeth. The mouth opened and the stench of carrion and death wafted over Cam. The inky black depths of the wolf’s mouth closed over Cam’s head and razor sharp teeth sliced through Cam’s neck. With that last image, Cam finally lost consciousness, her breaths too shallow to sustain her.
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