Talon the Raider

by A A Warren

  The man slumped in her arms, dropping his rifle.

  The other guard raised his rifle to fire. Vaki raised her hand… One of the tiny gems from her braid sparkled in her fingers. Before the guard could pull the trigger, she closed her eyes and hurled the jewel at the floor.

  The crystal shattered on impact. An explosion echoed through the air, and a blinding flash of light filled the corridor. The guard screamed and covered his eyes, but he was too late… the flash had blinded him. He stumbled backwards, firing wild. The shots flew over Vaki’s head, ricocheting off the corridor walls with a high-pitched whine.

  She dropped and rolled across the floor, grabbing the unconscious guard’s discarded rifle. As she popped back to her feet, she fired, sending an energy bolt into the stumbling man’s chest. He gasped and fell to the ground.

  Vaki’s eyes darted around the corridor.

  Sloppy, she thought, too much noise.

  She crouched, listening for the sound of footsteps, more guards, an alarm…

  There was only silence. Biting her lip, she turned and stood up. She dragged the unconscious guard over to a security door in the side of the corridor. Hefting him to a standing position, she pulled off his helmet and pried open his eye. With her other arm, she pressed his hand to the control panel mounted next to the door.

  A crimson beam emitted from the panel, scanning the guard’s iris. She knew a dead man’s hand would not have been able to trigger the door’s sensor. Luckily, an unconscious one could.

  “ACCESS GRANTED.” The door slid open.

  Vaki let the man slump to the ground. She charged into the room, sweeping the rifle in front of her, but the dim chamber appeared to be empty. As the door slid shut behind her, a dim blue light flickered to life in the room. The chamber was long and narrow, and a trio of glow spheres hovered overhead. The walls on either side of her sloped down at an angle, and a series of polished metal shutters ran down along each one. Another security door, identical to the one she had entered, stood at the far side of the sloped chamber.

  A row of metal pods hung suspended from the ceiling. She counted fifty of the strange metal objects, running through the entire length of the room. Each pod was oval shaped, and about several meters in diameter at their widest point. A coiled mass of tubes snaked down around the support struts that held each pod in the air. Glowing purple fluid pumped through the array of hoses and fed into the strange metal eggs.

  Vaki stepped closer to the pods, glancing left and right around the room. A row of lights circled each gleaming oval, and a control panel blinked on the far wall. Other than that, the room appeared to be empty.

  There has to be something important here, Vaki thought. This room isn’t in the archive plans.

  She had noted the location of the security door when the guards had originally led her through the complex. She had memorized the complex’s layout for her mission… she knew this place had to have been built after the initial mining colony construction began. Katara must have had a special purpose for this place…

  Slinging the rifle over her shoulder, she studied the controls on the closest pod. Her fingers darted across the blinking display. A metallic hiss echoed through the room. A burst of steam emitted from the pod, as the two metal halves slid apart.

  Vaki waved the haze away and leaned in closer. A transparent globe hung inside the metal egg. The iridescent purple fluid filled the sphere, but it appeared to be thinned out by other substances. She could make out objects drifting within the violet liquid. Chunks of rock bobbed in the murk, their cracked sides glittering with veins of obsidian crystals.

  Vaki glanced at the readings on the display. She tapped a few keys, and the hologram glowed to life, rotating in the air before her. The glowing blue light beams showed a complex crystalline structure…

  Black jade, she thought. Huge amounts of it, suspended in liquid form. But what is Katara doing with it here? Is this some new ore processing tech?

  She narrowed her eyes. Something else was moving within the hazy liquid.

  She reached out, gently touching the transparent sphere with her fingertips…

  A circle of fangs thumped against the glass. Vaki gasped, and yanked her hand away. A pale white body thrashed within the sphere. The thing’s leech-like mouth gnashed at the surface.

  It was one of the things that had attacked them out in the ice. The worms B’Turo had called Dorukuma.

  Frost demons…

  A shiver ran through her body, as she watched the creature batter the clear globe. Something about it seemed different than the specimens they had encountered before. Its head was larger, and its body was a deep, inky blue rather than the pale white specimens they had found outside the colony.

  Vaki turned back to the display. Her fingers danced across the controls as she searched for more info on the larva in the sphere. She opened a file marked classified. A new hologram glowed to life. Instead of the black jade, it showed a cutaway diagram of the planet’s core. A series of glowing lines crisscrossed through the surface, moving nearer to the planet’s crust.

  “The black jade,” she whispered to herself. “Katara found it near the planetary core…”

  The holo-display beeped, and a series of red rings erupted from the core, pulsing outwards, toward the planet’s surface. Warnings glowed to life beneath the floating diagram. Vaki’s face turned pale as she scanned the Aoshun text.

  “The quakes… the tremors! By the gods, that’s why they’re getting worse!”

  CRASH!

  She jumped as something thudded into the door behind her.

  CRASH! CRASH!

  The sound continued, growing in volume. Vaki held her wrist unit up to the display. A beam of light emerged, copying the file. Then she backed away from the pod, and set her pulse rifle to full power. A dent appeared in the metal door. Then another. And another. The metal panel began to shift and buckle.

  Something was trying to get in.

  Gritting her teeth, Vaki tapped her glowing wrist unit. She held it up to the sphere, recording an image of the thing inside. Then she ran past the metal shutters to the door at the opposite end of the room.

  The echoing crashes behind her grew louder. She glanced over her shoulder as she ran… she saw a pale, gnarled arm force its way between the two panels of the door.

  “By the gods!” she whispered.

  She increased her speed, sprinting past the remainder of the pods. She skidded to a stop in front of the doors, and punched the green exit button.

  A computerized voice sounded from the panel’s speaker.

  “ACCESS DENIED.”

  “Detaro!” she cursed. The security system locked both sides of the door, apparently. She glanced back at the other side of the room, where she had dropped the unconscious guard.

  The metal doors buckled inward, and tore loose from their tracks. A horde of men and women shoved their way through the opening. Their clothes were ragged and torn, their skin pale and gaunt. They shuffled towards her, arms clawing at the air.

  Stalkers, she thought. Walking corpses infected by the larva. But what are they doing in here?

  As the horde staggered towards her, Vaki examined the control panel. She saw there was no projector for a scanner beam of any kind. That meant whoever worked in here only needed a security badge to get out. The iris scanner was for people outside, wanting to get in.

  She held her wrist-unit closer to the panel and tapped the combination that triggered her override algorithm. Once again, a series of numbers and symbols flashed through the air.

  “Come on,” she hissed. She glanced back over her shoulder. More bodies were pouring into the room. They lurched towards her with staggered, uneven steps.

  She raised the rifle and fired, sending a barrage of pulse bolts into the lead corpses.

  A pair of the shuffling bodies dropped to the ground. The creatures tripped and stumbled, then crawled over the bodies of their fallen comrades.

  She knew it wouldn’t slow
them down for long.

  She glanced down at her wrist unit. Three of the symbols showed green, with two more still red… it had almost cracked the code, but she was running out of time.

  She fired again, dropping another creature. She checked the power cell on the rifle… it was already half empty.

  “Bloody cheap rifles,” she muttered.

  Her unit beeped. The final two symbols flashed green.

  She grinned and slammed her fist on the exit button. The doors slid open…

  Vaki gasped. Standing before her was another gaunt, decayed corpse. Its dull, glassy eyes seemed to stare right through her, as it raised its arms and uttered a wailing moan.

  Vaki raised her rifle and fired. A barrage of pulse bolts struck the corpse’s desiccated face. The thing’s head exploded in a mass of crimson smoke. It fell backwards into another crowd of dead bodies, all of them pushing, shoving, moaning…

  Vaki backed away from the door, sending another burst of energy bolts into the lead creatures. She pivoted and fired again, sweeping her fire to cut off the other horde of corpses at the knees.

  The dead things were streaming in through both sets of doors. Her eyes darted left and right… she was surrounded. They were closing in on her, shuffling past the strange hanging pods. The only other possible exit from the room were the sloped metal shutters that ran along the walls of the chamber.

  Vaki continued firing, jogging towards the control panel mounted on one of the walls. The moaning of the creatures rose in volume, as more and more staggered into the room. A few of them tripped over the bodies of their slain brethren. They didn’t even try to pick themselves up… they just crawled towards her, pulling themselves across the metal floor with their withered arms.

  Vaki’s back touched the wall. She picked off the nearest creature, then checked her power meter. The red lines that ran along the barrel blinked at their lowest setting. The weapon was almost empty.

  She glanced down at the controls. The tiny box mounted to the wall was another security lock, similar to the main doors. She let go of the rifle with one hand, and held her wrist unit next to the box. Once again, the red numbers began to flicker and glow, as her program worked to decrypt the access code.

  A loud, angry groan sounded from just in front of her. A blast of putrid breath assaulted her nostrils. Her head shot up… one of the creatures shuffled closer. It swung its arms in a clumsy attempt to grab her. She ducked and raised the rifle with one hand, jabbing the barrel in the thing’s mouth.

  “Go back to the haunted stars,” she hissed.

  She pulled the trigger. The thing’s head glowed white-hot, then exploded. As the smoking body collapsed to the floor, her eyes darted down to her wrist display. Half the numbers had been decoded.

  A chorus of moans and cries surrounded her. The two hordes of creatures had converged, and swarmed around her body. A tiny circle of clear floor surrounded her. The rest of the room was filled with shadowy bodies.

  She checked the rifle’s meter… only one tiny red light was blinking.

  Two or three shots left, max, she thought. Now what?

  The creatures lurched towards her. She tossed her weapon into the air and caught it by the barrel. Swinging it like a club, she slammed the heavy rifle stock into the nearest corpse’s head. She heard a crack as the thing’s neck snapped. Its head hung to the side at an odd angle, but it continued pressing forward. She jabbed again with the rifle. Another loud crack sounded, as the thing’s jaw shattered from the impact of her blow. It stumbled backwards, tripping over the bodies behind it.

  BEEP.

  Glancing down, Vaki saw the algorithm had finished decoding the access code. A large circular light on the panel blinked green. She made a fist, and slammed down on the glowing button.

  The rumble of heavy servo motors echoed through the room, drowning out the moaning horde of corpses. The twin pairs of metal shutters clattered up their tracks, retracting into the ceiling. Vaki’s eyes opened wide, as a brilliant purple light flooded into the room, casting long shadows of the shuffling bodies across the floor.

  The opening shutters revealed a pair of gigantic tanks, filled with the same thick purple liquid as the hanging spheres. Each tank was massive, running the entire length of the long narrow room. She could see dark shapes, bobbing and spinning in the murky depths.

  One of the objects drifted closer, bumping amongst the tank’s transparent wall.

  It was a gigantic, fleshy mouth. It looked like a starfish, but it was several meters across. Four sharp beaks, lined with row after row of curved fangs. Tattered, white flesh drifted behind the thing, waving like strands of silk in the violet liquid.

  The worms, she thought. Katara is preserving their remains here. But why?

  The groaning of the corpses dragged her attention away from the grisly specimens in the tank. Grabbing the rifle in both hands, she swung again, clubbing the nearest creature in the neck and battering it the ground.

  She swung one more time, forcing the creatures to recoil, slowing their advance.

  Then she adjusted the power modulator on the rifle, sending all remaining energy into the firing coil.

  One shot… one chance.

  The nearest corpse picked itself off the ground. As it staggered to its feet, it opened its mouth and hissed at her. Several broken teeth fell from its bloody maw, and rattled to the floor. It stepped towards her. More bodies pressed in. A dozen pairs of arms writhed in the air, clawing at her jumpsuit, grasping for her flesh. She stared into the lifeless eyes of the nearest creature.

  “Choke on this,” she muttered.

  She raised the rifle and fired straight up. The high-powered bolt bathed the dim room in a flash of blue light. The glowing lance of energy shot straight up, striking the sloped wall of the tank.

  The transparent wall shattered. Vaki closed her eyes.

  The cold, slimy fluid exploded into the room. She tried to hold her breath, but she felt the oxygen explode from her lungs as the wave slammed into her. Her body was thrown into the air, torn away from the wall as if plucked up by the gods. Then she tumbled through the darkness, born aloft by the unstoppable flood raging around her.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Talon grunted as a slit of harsh white light filled his vision. He realized his eyes were still half closed. He blinked, and lifted his head off the mangled deck of the beam-skater’s cockpit. Around him, he heard metal groan and creak. He shook his head to clear the haze from his vision. As his eyes focused, he saw trails of smoke wafting through the tiny compartment. Sparks leapt from various panels and systems scattered around the cockpit, blinding him with a harsh glare.

  The ship lurched forward, and the groaning of bent metal grew louder. Talon threw out his arms to brace himself, but the tiny craft jerked to a stop almost immediately. Another shower of sparks cascaded behind him. Taking a deep breath, Talon crawled to his feet, making only slow, careful movements. He glanced out the cracked dome of the cockpit.

  A glittering white oblivion yawned beneath them. The tiny ship had skidded all the way to the end of the ice crevasse. It now hung suspended in the air, just over the edge of a towering white cliff.

  The skater groaned again, and Talon felt the deck plates shift beneath his feet. The wreck was losing its purchase on the ice. If they skidded over the edge, they would plunge down to the frozen ground below.

  “B’Turo!” He spoke in a quiet hiss. Talon had little experience with ice or snow, but he sensed that even the slightest vibration could send them tumbling to their deaths.

  The old man lay slumped over his controls. Talon reached over, and checked for a pulse. He felt a faint heart beat, pumping through the man’s carotid artery. He was still alive.

  The ship groaned again. Talon took a cautious step towards B’Turo, and unbuckled the miner’s harness. He prodded the old man’s shoulder. “B'Turo, wake up. We have to get out of here!”

  Again there was no response. Muttering a silent curse, Talon bent
over, and slung the elderly man’s body over his shoulders. The ship groaned, and slid another forward another meter. Taking slow, measured steps, Talon made his way to the cockpit’s exit hatch. He pressed the glowing green light on the control panel. The damaged servo motors made a grinding noise. A trail of smoke wafted from the square frame of the exit.

  The hatch remained sealed tight.

  Talon ran his fingers over the side wall. The metal had buckled and warped from the impact, jamming the hatch mechanism.

  He took a step back, and glanced around the damaged ship. As more sparks erupted around him, he felt them slip closer to the edge. A shower of ice and snow poured into the tiny compartment through a tear in the metal hull above. Talon reached up and felt along the edges of the narrow opening. It was too small for them to crawl through, even if B’Turo could move on his own.

  As the ship continued to skid further down the ice, Talon’s eyes darted around the cockpit. He spotted a second blinking light, next to the hatch exit. It was flashing red, and marked with the universal galactic emergency symbol.

  Emergency release, Talon thought. Explosive charges to release the hatch.

  Triggering the charges would blow the entire side panel away from the skimmer. But he was certain the detonation would send the precarious ship over the edge of the chasm.

  The metal frame of the skimmer shuddered. Talon glanced up as more snow and ice pelted his shoulders. They were running out of time… He had to get them off the ship now, one way or another.

  Setting B’Turo down, he yanked a mesh cargo net from the wall, letting the stacks of rations and regulator batteries it contained clatter to the floor. Sliding one of his cryocite blades from his battle harness, he used the razor sharp weapon to tear the net from its spring-loaded carbineer clips, and cut it into strips of synthetic cord.

  As the ship lurched again, he tied cords together, forming a long, durable rope. He looped one end of the rope through the net’s carbineer clips, and buckled it onto B’Turo’s belt. Then he clipped the other end to his battle harness, and drew his second blade.