by Steve Perry
What the hell's going on here?
Vincent stepped out onto the platform, Briggs and Nirasawa right behind-and it occurred to him that perhaps he wasn't the only one on Bunda aware of the information on that log. Aware that there were billions to be made for anyone- any corporation, with access to hard stats on infestation.
No, he'd been careful, the Company had it all locked down-but there are enemies within.
Someone like Julia Russ, maybe. Or any one of a dozen competitors he could think of, desperate for that spot on the Board. Weyland/Yutani wanted results, they didn't necessarily care who handed them in.
Briggs turned, leaning back into the stale shuttle air. "Watch for strangers," he said.
Keene, towering over his two charges, Jess at his feet, nodded briskly. It would have to do.
Briggs turned back to Vincent, motioning impatiently for him to lead the way-and deciding, quite firmly, that it was the monotonous scream of the station's alarm that was making him feel so anxious.
When the ME shook, Tom Cabot was hiding out in the rec room, watching a sci-fi holovid in near dark with a few of the researchers-Cindy and Di, both paleo women, and John C., one of the maintenance guys. The sudden up and down wasn't too bad where they were, all of them managed to keep their seats, but Cabot knew that parts of the station would have been harder hit.
The second it stopped, all of them were on their feet, moving toward the open door that led out onto the rec platform. The floor was slanted just a bit, Cabot could feel it, and when he heard the stabilizer alarm start up, he felt real fear. MEs weren't supposed to quake like that, and something had to be seriously wrong if the nav computers couldn't keep the alarm from sounding.
Either someone entered a drift code or we got caught on something big, something heavy, and it just had to happen with a suit on board, didn't it? First time ever and Vincent'll be having a shit fit ...
They reached the door, moving out onto the platform littered with bolted tables and chairs, Cabot stepping up to the railing. John C. and the two scientists joined him, identical expressions of nervous concern on their faces. The rec deck overlooked control directly, maybe they'd be able to see something
"What's that?" Cindy said, pointing to the deck below. The outside lights were low, it was hard to tell, a sprawl of something wet, shining darkly ...
"Oh, shit," Di said weakly. "It's Windy, that's Windy."
They stared down at what was left of the channel watcher, no chance that he was alive with all of that blood--and behind them, something shrieked. A gurgling, unbridled howl, a scream of murder about to happen.
Cabot spun and saw nothing at all, but the horrible sound went on, erupting out of thin air, and then they were all stumbling away from the rail, running for the tunnel that opened out onto the deck, that would take them away from the invisible screamer--and Cindy, closest to the corridor, let out a strangled cry and stopped cold, her head whipping back as if she'd run into something, her limbs flailing wildly. All of them pulled to a stop only a couple of meters behind her, clutching at each other like frightened children.
"What is it, what's happening?" John C. screamed, and no one answered, watching in shocked terror as metal claws appeared in front of Cindy, from nowhere, a sharp sliding sound, and then they were swooping down from above, raking her open from throat to belly. Blood gushed out and hit the platform with a wet slap, and Cindy collapsed, crashing face-first into the sudden lake of red.
Cabot didn't waste time wondering. He grabbed at John C. and Di, giving them a jerk before spinning around and sprinting for the door back into the rec room. He didn't turn back to see if they were following, didn't care, all he wanted was to get the fuck away from whatever had clawed Cindy open, oh, please God, Buddha, Jesus don't let me die-
Behind him, an alien howl, a caterwaul of triumph, and he was going to make it, the door was right there--and the crazy hope that crashed through him as he burst into the dimly lit room was the last thing he felt, except for the unseen arm that clamped down across his throat, except for the slick, hot sensation of being drained as something cold slipped through his abdomen.
* * *
Chapter 18
Noguchi was dozing, a fight, restless sleep that seemed to be taking her in and out of unpleasant dreams, when the aging wave scanner started spitting out static and words.
Startled out of her doze, Noguchi rolled over to switch it off, wondering why she'd bothered to put the damned thing on in the first place. She touched the controls, then paused, her attention caught by the sound of the speaker's voice. A woman, and she sounded scared .
...Bunda survey, we are ... tack ... lizers malfunctioning ...
It was clearer than Noguchi was used to, the words sharper. She hit the tuner rather than the power switch and upped the volume a notch, then lay back down on her bunk, listening. With the channel reestablished, the connection cleared up a little .
...peat, this is Bunda survey ... are under attack, send-help! The station ... ucked up, I can ... people screaming ... ey're invisible, can't see them and ...
Noguchi sat up, staring at the scanner .
...killing everyone ...
Invisible. Attack.
Hunters.
Even through her shocked disbelief, it only took a second for everything to fall into place. The truth was so simple.
Wouldn't want me along on a Hunt where the grand finale involves killing humans, would you?
...can hear me, I'm gonna try to see ... can get to ... ships, evacuate ...
She barely heard it, the thoughts too sudden and overwhelming, blocking out everything else. The warrior with the wrist banner, Topknot's decision for her to fight a novice on the morning of the Hunt, the consistent and all-consuming hatred that they'd held for her; from the beginning. What Hunter befriends their prey? Sharpening their skills on bugs, ranting on and on about the Hunter's code and the Blooding ritual, and maybe some of that was true-but the big Hunt, the one that brought Leaders and their veteran comrades in from throughout their universe ...
...humans. They went down there to slaughter people.
For a moment, Noguchi couldn't move, her body stiff with the desperate need to do something, every muscle locked because she didn't know what that thing was. The transports were all gone, there was no way for her to get to the surface-but she couldn't do nothing, listening to some terrified woman screaming for help while she sat and waited for the Hunters to return ...
Topknot, her Leader. She'd respected him, and the pain of that thought turned to an anger deeper than mere emotion; her very soul had been betrayed, she'd suffered a year of hell adhering to a code created by hypocrites. By human killers.
Noguchi stood up and walked to the shelf in the corner of the little room before she knew what she was going to do, pulling down things that had been given to her by the Hunters. There was the blade with the shortened handle, the knee and shoulder pads that had been a child yautja's, a dull erose knife that she'd spent hours sharpening and polishing, honing to a sparkling sharpness. Throwaways from the Clan that she'd been proud to own ...
She didn't have a plan as she started to dress, slipping into her armor, feeling stronger with each layer of splash suit and weaponry, the aches and pains of her body falling away. By the time she was finished, enough of an idea had formed that she was ready to act.
Noguchi was going to make her break with the Hunters in a way that they would never forget, and she was going to make peace with herself while she was doing it. When it was over, she would truly be free.
At last, Briggs and the others were gone and there was only Keene, watching them, holding Ellis's numb shoulder with a grip like a steel vise. Lara's, too, her lovely face lined with pain.
Ellis felt dizzy and sick and ashamed. Jess had been badly hurt and now Briggs didn't believe that there was no ship's log. Through all of it, the only thing that seemed clear-figuratively and literally-was Max. Max stood giant and invulnerable, watching it all, i
ts hydraulic body almost glowing with energy at rest. Max had been the answer, and Ellis had ignored it.
I was afraid of pain, of dying, and I failed to act. If we were together, none of this would have happened, we could have stopped this before anyone was hurt. He'd been weak, he'd already forgotten what Max had taught him ...
On the floor, Jess moaned. Ellis looked away from Max, feeling a physical ache in his stomach at the sight of his friend. Jess was on his back, his swollen eyes closed.
"Jess? Are you-can you hear me?" Lara asked, and let out a small cry as Keene gave her a rough shake. Jess cracked his eyes open, rolling slowly onto his side, breathing shallowly.
"Yeah," he said, wincing. "Yeah, I hear you ..."
"Stay on the floor," Keene ordered, his Nordic face still flushed from beating Jess, from exertion or pleasure or both. "Get up and I'll kill you."
Ellis looked at Max again, feeling as though his heart would break. They'd been getting closer since their joining, their thoughts running through his mind now and he'd been a fool, Max still had multiple--11.52, one hundred M309 rounds each--cartridges for the pulse rifle, at least twenty HEAP grenades left, and most of its secondary M210 tank was still full of napthal. Worst of all, Ellis knew that feeling sorry for what he hadn't done didn't matter at all, it didn't help and they were still going to be killed by Briggs for information that they didn't even have-
"Ellis, what's wrong?" Lara said sharply, a thread of terror in her voice.
Ellis turned his head, confused, saw that both Keene and Lara were looking at him--and then Lara was moving, bending her knees and slipping out from beneath Keene's hand, coming up from her crouch with her arm straight, her hand flat--and Ellis felt Keene's fingers clench and relax on his shoulder as Lara chopped the side of her hand into his throat, a sound like some crisp vegetable being snapped erupting from the blond's quivering lips. He grabbed at his neck with both hands, his eyes wide, his face purpling in seconds.
Lara was in a fighting stance, her hands up, ready to hit again-but Keene was no longer a threat. He crumpled to the floor still clutching at his throat, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly. A few seconds later, he wasn't moving at all.
Ellis crouched next to him, putting a shaky hand over Keene's mouth. He wasn't breathing.
"You killed him," Ellis said wonderingly.
Lara was already moving toward Jess, rubbing at her shoulder. "I used to be a Marine," she said. "People seem to keep forgetting that."
Together, they knelt next to Jess, Lara helping him to sit up. Jess groaned again but managed to stay upright, holding his head in his hands. He squinted at Lara from red eyes, the welts on his face already darkening to black.
"Jesus. Remind me not to fuck with you," he said softly.
Lara smiled a little. "Yeah, well. I was tired of waiting for you to make your move."
The floor of the shuttle trembled, the platform beneath seeming to tilt a little more. The distant alarm continued to blare. Jess finally raised his head and sat up straight, gritting his teeth against his pain.
"We gotta get out of here," he said. "Can we take off?"
Lara shook her head. "We wouldn't make it more than a few klicks, we need to refuel. And we don't have VTOL, I have to program some kind of a flight plan."
Jess looked at Ellis, studying his face. "Kid, you with us?"
Ellis nodded, not sure what Jess was asking, knowing only that he had to make up for his failure. "Yeah. Of course."
With help from both of them, Jess crawled to his feet, swaying for a moment--.37--before he found his balance. Lara crouched next to Keene and rifled through his suit, pulling out the semiautomatic that had been taken earlier.
"Get on the program," Jess said. "Ellis, I'm going to need your help. Come on."
Ellis nodded, wondering why so much of this felt like a dream, why the numbers in his mind wouldn't stay, wouldn't take the place of the turbulent and unpleasant emotions that continued to plague him. He felt confused and unsure of himself-but as he followed Jess out into the strange night, he swore that he wouldn't give in to his feelings, and that whatever it took, he wouldn't screw up again.
Johnathon Callistori, aka John C.; made it to control without going outside again, using one of the maintenance stairwells and coming in from the corridor that led to the central lift. The door had been blocked, but he was let in once he'd screamed his name a few times, babbling his story out to the scared young archaeologist who opened the door. He'd had to jump over Cabot's body, dragging Di along with him, and before they made it to the tunnel she had been grabbed away, hot blood from her cut throat splashing against the backs of his legs as he crawled into the dark.
Control was packed, people crying and semihysterical and pale with shock. Windy and then two others had been murdered just outside, the sight of their bloody bodies feeding their collective terror. Cabot was dead, Vincent wasn't there, and there were a few more screaming, pounding knocks at the inner door, frightened researchers tumbling in with stories of alien howls and invisible beings, of friends and coworkers slain. In all, it took a few moments for any kind of order to be established. One of the pilots, Lee Goldmann, finally called for a head count. There were thirteen Bunda people missing, eight confirmed dead, and no one had any idea what had attacked them.
Goldmann and the other Bunda pilot, Les Drucker, called for an immediate evac. No one disagreed, except for Chris Aquino, who didn't want to leave without his missing lover, and a woman named Irwin, the Sun Jumper pilot who was waiting for her boss to show up. John C. thought they were nuts, but then, he wasn't all that sure of his own sanity anymore; the feel of Di's blood cooling against his calves was a nightmare like no other, turning part of his mind into a vague and shadowy place that he did his best to stay out of.
Goldmann took charge, sending two of the more together biotechs to the supply room for what weapons Bunda had and getting Evans to set up the AD signal on a pulse to the next outpost. Once they were armed, they'd move out to the transports en masse and go. There was no real discussion about waiting for the missing few to show, the subject unanimously ignored; maybe they'd hear the ships warming up and make it out to the LZ in time to board. If they didn't, they were probably dead already.
Together, they waited for Karen and Rich to get back with weapons, silent and afraid as they listened to the open intercom, listened for screams. After Evans had sent out their auto-distress, he tried to get some of the others to join him in prayer, but he didn't have many takers. John C., a lapsed Catholic, thought that if Evans had seen what he had, he'd realize that God had nothing to do with what had happened on Bunda; the Devil was more like it, the planet his now. If God had any interest at all in taking care of matters, there was going to be a war-and all John C. wanted was to get the hell out of Their way.
* * *
Chapter 19
Noguchi walked purposefully through the ship, the three yautja she passed ignoring her completely. If they saw the burner strapped to her back, they didn't think it important. She'd been dishonored, after all; what did they care if she chose to wander around in full armor, armed or not? That was her assumption, anyway, and all that mattered was that no one try to stop her as she made her way to operations.
The Shell's control room wasn't overly large, one long console running the length of the room with two bolted chairs, a wide front viewscreen, and the main terminal for the ship's computer. Everything in Clan culture was based around the Hunt, their technology advanced enough to make things like piloting extremely simple; Hunters didn't. waste time or energy in areas where there was no honor to be gained.
She stood just outside control in the large, empty shuttle dock where Topknot's transport usually sat, preparing herself for her first action. The two yautja in operations were older Hunters, past their prime, as most shipworkers seemed to be. The attitude of yautja toward their elders was respectful, a kind of unspoken understanding existing that the "retired" could Hunt, but had simply decided no
t to; in this way, old Hunters that weren't lucky enough to have died in battle were still worthy of regard.
They don't Hunt anymore, but that doesn't mean they're any less dangerous. If anything, the fact that they'd survived to become old in such a violent culture spoke very highly of their skills. They wouldn't be expecting to be attacked on a ship, but she'd still have to be fast and efficient, not a movement wasted.
The door was open, making it easier for her to slip silently into the room, walking on the balls of her padded feet. Neither of the Hunters turned away from the console or from their conversation, probably trading stories of trophy Hunts. They were dressed only in harness tops and loincloths, no weapons within reach, and Noguchi managed to get within a meter before one of them noticed her. It was one of the few Hunters whose name she could actually pronounce, Prient'de, and he broke off talking, his tusks flaring wide with alarm--and Noguchi snapped out her wrist blades even as she swung, catching Prient'de under his chin in a swift and sure killing strike, dropping to one knee and turning, hand coming up as droplets of pale blood flew-
-and she rammed the wet blades into the other's lower belly as he rose, realizing too late that the ooman had come to kill them. She'd never named this other, and as he clutched at the strange coils of gut that slid between his claws, toppling, hissing weakly, she thought that "Dead" suited him quite well. The light green, thin liquid that served as yautja blood was hot and smelled almost sweet, the scent filling the room as it flowed across the floor.
No going back, she was committed, and the thought made her own blood run hot. She didn't feel proud of having killed the unarmed Hunters, but there was no guilt, either. She felt driven, she felt alive with intent, and there was a sense of righteousness in her heart that she knew would only get stronger.
Noguchi walked back to the door and closed it, pushing the lock control and turning the manual bolt. Given time and tools, the Hunters could get through, but she had a diversion in mind, something to take their minds off of the fact that they'd been hijacked.
