“Your comm-piece still up?” Sangfroid asked, surprised. “Why do you think it’s only this deck?”
Gallo shook her head. “Lost it ages ago. Melted like butter. And I don’t know why they’re concentrating on this deck, but they want it.” She turned to face the hanger Sangfroid and Millicent had come from and readied her gun. “Okay, I’m up for it.”
Sangfroid shook her head. “No go. It’s a big bastard and it’s bedded in for the foreseeable.” She nodded in the opposite direction. “We’re heading for Kappa,” her voice brooked no opposition, “via the labs.”
“The labs.” Gallo looked uncomfortable with this idea. “Aw, man.”
Sangfroid nodded at Millicent. “It’s okay. We got a brainiac to lead us through.”
Gallo still didn’t look happy. “I hate the labs,” she said glumly.
Sangfroid nodded at the hangar doors. “We’re mincemeat if we go back there.”
Gallo’s frown turned to a mutinous scowl.
“Plus, it’s an order,” Sangroid added, her voice taking on an edge that reminded them all who was in command.
“Aye, Decanus.” Gallo turned towards the labs in a huff.
Decanus? Millicent struggled with the word. It was Sangfroid’s military rank, she supposed. She had heard her called that earlier, through what she now realized were their communication objects. Her fingers itched to draw the small wired box away from Sangfroid’s ear and examine it. How fascinating. Hubert would love it here if it were not so deadly.
“If the Beta launching deck is jammed with friggin’ Colossal, I suppose we’ve no other choice.” Gallo was still grumbling about the shortcut through the lab. “But anything so much as twitches, lady,” she turned and glared at Millicent. “I’m fucking popping it.”
Good Lord, Millicent thought. Why on earth do they insist I’m one of their scientists? Surely they can see I’m not of the current timeline. And whatever is in the laboratories to make them all so jittery?
CHAPTER 8
The laboratory was sealed tight. At first Millicent didn’t consider this strange, despite all the other doors on the deck crazily slamming open and shut. She assumed they had corroded wiring.
“Stand back,” Sangfroid ordered her. Brash blue light flamed from the pistols she and Gallo pointed at the command panel.
“What kind of weapon is that?” she asked when they stopped firing to examine the damage.
“Hand laser.”
“Fascinating,” she said. Then after a moment, she asked, “What is a laser?” But her question was drowned out by a second onslaught on the panel.
“Wish they put this much security into all the door locks,” Gallo bellowed over the sizzle of fried wires. “Might be nice to keep a squid out for once.”
The wiring popped and then surrendered, and the doors slid quietly open. Sangfroid and Gallo stopped firing, and in the silence that followed, Millicent mulled over Gallo’s words. “Nice to keep a squid out for once.” Did that mean… “Are you intimating there are squid locked in here?” she asked.
Gallo and Sangfroid looked at her with growing incredulity. “It’s the lab,” Sangfroid said, unhelpfully.
“Well, you’re the scientist,” Gallo muttered gloomily. “What else do you keep in a lab, ’cept squid?” She stared warily through the open doorway. “Don’t tell me there’re worse things than squid in there.”
A thunderous bang echoed down the corridor behind them. Something ominous was occurring farther on up.
“We need to get going.” Sangfroid stepped inside, laser raised. She signalled for Millicent to stay close to her. Gallo automatically took up the rear.
“So. Where do we go?” Sangfroid asked Millicent.
The room was a brightly lit wonderland. A perfect oasis of calm, unperturbed by the brutal battle going on outside its sterile walls. Sterile walls that were covered with hundreds of wiring panels and glowing lights. Millicent stared, awed by the glory of it all. Long, wide benches, in a shiny translucent material Millicent didn’t recognize, stretched the length of it, and complex machinery sat on the bench tops or was suspended from overhead racks. Everything looked sharp and bright and gloriously intriguing. Millicent’s fingers itched to touch.
“Where do we go?” Sangfroid repeated in a tight voice.
“Oh. Let’s go here.” Millicent headed directly to the first bench to examine a magnificent example of a gyroscope. “Goodness me, I’ve never seen such a small one, or so precise. Hubert was considering the possibility of a gyrocompass, you know. He hoped the new electric motors could help him create an indefinite spin. He has a rudimentary prototype assembled at the moment, but if he could only see—”
“How the hell do we get out of here!” Sangfroid yelled. Millicent jumped back from the gyroscope as if it had burned her.
“I have no idea,” she answered curtly.
“But this is the lab,” Sangfroid said.
“It’s not my lab.”
“Not—” She looked like she might explode, and Millicent was glad there was a workbench between them.
“Well, fuck that.” Gallo was equally aghast.
“I have not, at any point, stated that I worked in this laboratory.” Millicent felt compelled to redefine what was quickly becoming a dictate from these two. “That was an assumption on your part entirely.”
“What! But!” Sangfroid spluttered and then sighed heavily. “Okay. Let’s just find an exit and get out of here.” She turned away and led them deeper into the lab.
“Good gracious, look at that.” Millicent gasped.
“What? What is it?” Gallo raised her weapon. Millicent gently pushed Gallo’s firearm away.
“It’s already dead,” she said. She walked over to a huge glass tank covering the far wall from floor to ceiling. It was filled with a thick viscose liquid, and multiple wires emerged from the tank to disappear into various electrical wall panels. The other ends of the wires were attached to a severed, heavily muscled, squid tentacle. It was at least fifty feet long, and at its thickest point was about five feet deep, which meant it was nearly as tall as Millicent herself. This close, Millicent found the physiology fascinating.
“That’s unusual. The squid you’re fighting have more tentacles than arms,” she mused. “This tentacle, for instance, has multiple hooks and serrated suction rings. An uncommon amount, despite the size.”
“That’s ’cos it’s a soldier squid.” Gallo came to stand beside her.
“A soldier? So you’re saying these squid have a social structure, or a caste system, like an ant colony? What an intriguing concept.”
Gallo shrugged, looking far from intrigued. She was less tense now that there was no immediate danger. Her hand strayed to her neckline, and she plucked absently at a gold medallion and muttered what Millicent took to be a short prayer. Or maybe it was an oath; it was hard to tell with Gallo. The medallion glinted in the overhead lighting.
“Is that an amulet?” Millicent asked, noting her companion’s fidgeting.
“It’s the goddess Looselea.” Gallo shoved the medallion towards Millicent so she could take a better look at the golden cameo. “She’s the goddess of engineers, not soldiers, but the medallion belonged to my mother so…” She shrugged self-consciously and tucked it back into her tunic. “Brings me luck,” she said as she snapped her top button.
“You mother was an engineer?” Millicent was fascinated.
“Yeah. Damned good ’un, too. See them hooks?” She awkwardly changed the subject and pointed at the rows of vicious tentacle barbs with her handgun. “They can rotate. Rip you in half in a second.”
“In less than a second.” Sangfroid joined them.
Millicent shuddered. She had seen them in action. It still felt like a dream, but her hand against the cold glass of the tank and the warm, sweaty smell of Sangfroid and Gallo stan
ding beside her reminded her it was not. It was a nightmare. She was in a place where she should never have existed, experiencing things she fervently believed belonged far into the future. And what an Armageddon of a future it was. What had mankind become? Why, these people standing beside her could even be her own progeny!
Gallo burped and tapped the glass with her toe. “Smelly fucker,” she said.
“Hell, yeah,” Sangfroid agreed.
Millicent sighed. Perhaps she would remain childless.
Gallo wandered off to examine other tanks nearby, and Sangfroid moved closer to Millicent. She regarded the severed tentacle with interest.
“I’ve never seen one of these things up close. Well, this still and up close. Why is it in there?” Sangfroid asked.
Millicent’s gaze followed the trunk wiring. It wound from the tank to the panels in the wall above. The wires were thick and of various colours, all twisted and flexed, making the cord appear almost umbilical. “I think it’s a type of electrical animation,” she said. “I’m unsure how the circuitry works, but I’d guess the electrical impulses trigger muscle responses in the limb. Interestingly, this was first proven by Galvani in the late eighteenth cen—”
“Okey-dokey.” Sangfroid sounded distracted. She turned away and shouted at Gallo. “What’s up ahead?”
“—tury,” Millicent concluded. If she couldn’t be bothered to wait for the answer then why ask the question? She glared after Sangfroid, but then her thoughts returned to the tank and its lurid contents, and she bit her lip. She considered experimentation on living specimens cruel, but this looked like an attempt to reanimate dead tissue. The question was how did the specimen reach the tank? She hoped the tentacle had not been dismembered from a living organism.
“Do all the laboratories do this type of experimentation?” she asked.
Sangfroid grimaced. “You’re the brains. I’m just the shooter who keeps you alive and thinking.”
“There’s babies,” Gallo called from another tank. Millicent’s heart sank as she went to look.
“Larvae,” she said with some relief. Hundreds of the translucent little molluscs floated in a deep vat. They tumbled and fell in a myriad of pearlescent blues and whites, swirling like liquid jewels in a kaleidoscope.
“Squirmy little buggers,” Gallo said.
“They’re dead.” Millicent’s voice was flat. “They’re only moving because the liquid’s vibrating.” She moved away, disappointed and distressed. This part of the lab was almost entirely stocked with tanks filled with various parts of squid anatomy. There was an awful gruesomeness to it, an urgency to try and understand these creatures, though most probably only to research their weaknesses rather than wonder at their magnificence. Hubert had often bewailed that the greatest scientific advances were so closely associated with, and financed by, warfare and cruelty, rather than a sincere and altruistic thirst for knowledge. If this was the future, then he would be disappointed that so little had changed. The work in this laboratory was not so much know thine enemy as, quite literally, divide and conquer.
“Let’s get out of here.” Sangfroid was back to guide her away from the tanks. “Kappa sector’s this way.” Her grip on Millicent’s elbow was curiously gentle as if she sensed her distress. A quick glance at her fixed profile told Millicent that Sangfroid was also affected by the laboratory’s research.
They moved on, weaving through the wide benches with their array of fantastical instruments and machinery. Millicent would often stop and dither by a particularly marvellous contraption, but could do little more than ogle before Sangfroid pulled her away and kept them moving.
“I think we can exit through there.” Gallo pointed off to the left. “It leads to Kappa through the aft decks.”
Sangfroid hesitated a moment then redirected them to the door Gallo had identified. They approached a separate wing of the laboratory guarded by even more locked doors which were covered with vivid iconography that Millicent took to be warning sigils. Gallo muttered an oath, and her hand strayed to her medallion. Both she and Sangfroid raised their handguns and blazed away at a nearby door panel.
“Get ready to run when I tell you,” Sangfroid roared over the din of her weapon. The panel was on fire, and the doors were slamming open and shut like a sideways guillotine. Would the danger ever cease? Millicent had not appreciated how tiresome adventuring could be.
“Gallo, you go first. When she says it’s clear, you’re next. Okay?” Sangfroid shouted at her. Millicent snapped out of her reverie and watched in alarm as Gallo timed her leap and passed through the slicing doors unscathed. Weapon at the ready, Gallo scoured the room beyond before giving Sangfroid an affirmative that all was safe.
“On three,” Sangfroid told Millicent. “One, two…three.” She counted down, then pushed Millicent so roughly she sailed through the gap with her feet barely touching the floor. Sangfroid followed hard on her heels, slammed her flat onto the floor with her huge body sprawled flat over her. They lay nose to nose, and Millicent found she was momentarily transfixed by the grey of Sangfroid’s eyes; they had little green flecks, and the irises were expanding at a rate of knots until her eye was almost black.
“Kindly remove yourself at once, Miss Sangfroid,” she blurted, embarrassed by her flushed face and light, shallow breathing that she was certain were only too apparent. The woman’s clumsiness around her was absurd. She always seemed to be slamming into or falling over her. Sangfroid scrambled awkwardly to her feet and dragged Millicent up with her. Gallo guffawed. Millicent glowered and dusted herself down with sharp agitated movements. Though Lord knew why she bothered; her lovely eau de nil day dress was destroyed.
“It’s not miss; it’s decanus, my rank.” Sangfroid’s rough cheeks flushed. “Call me Sangfroid,” she said, her gaze darting away. Millicent rubbed her bruised shoulder, and her jaw clenched in censure. Awkwardly, Sangfroid reached out and tucked an errant strand of hair behind Millicent’s ear. “I guess you’ve earned it, I’ve done nothing but beat up on you all day.” Sangfroid’s fingertips were hard and calloused as they scraped against her cheek. She moved her face into the touch, but only for a pulse beat. Sangfroid felt so safe, so solid and reassuring, and after all, any fleeting solace in this mad world could only be welcome.
“I’m just going over here to throw up a little.” Gallo stomped off while making yakking sounds. Then she called, “Hey. There’s another tank in here.” She peered into a darkened annex. “It looks different from the—” She pulled back startled.
“Different?” Millicent was by her side in an instant, curiosity outweighing concern. Gallo’s arm barred her from moving any farther forward.
“Careful, I thought I saw something move.” She squinted into the darkness. Their movements or perhaps even the sound of their voices seemed to automatically bring the annex to life. Overhead lighting flickered on, but it was soft and low-level compared to the brash lights in the outer laboratory. The walls began to glow pink, a reflection of the colour pulsing out from a shallow tank that sat on a central bench. The wires leading to and from it hummed. This tank was active, in contrast to the others that had been switched off. Perhaps this room ran from a separate power supply.
“I think the room reacts to us,” Millicent said, amazed at such a marvel. “That’s the movement you saw. It was the room responding to you,” she told Gallo, who still looked leery.
“Live specimen.” Sangfroid read a sign on the annex door. “That’s what you saw.” Her voice was grim. “There’s something in there, all right.”
“Security status triple Alpha.” Gallo read another sign.
“Detour time,” Sangfroid snapped, and she and Gallo turned back the way they’d come. Millicent watched their retreating backs for a split second, then kept her course straight into the triple Alpha lab. She was drawn as if magnetized. If there was a live specimen here, she wanted to see it. Her skin tingl
ed, and she imagined her hair crackled with the frenetic energies that ricocheted around the room.
“Wait!” Sangfroid came running back, but it was too late. Millicent stood in the middle of the annex by a small tank, wracked with horror. This tank was shallow and circular, not unlike a huge lab dish, and filled with a clear gelatinous liquid. Inside, a small squid lay staked out with its arms and tentacles all stretched to their utmost and clipped to electrical grip devices that hummed menacingly. The squid’s mantle was coral, and the colour filtered along the tentacles to a pearly pink that finally paled to white at the tentacle tips. The gentle undulation of colour reminded Millicent of rose petals fading as summer passed. Its suction rings were a deeper pink, and there were no barbs on the fragile arms. Its single squid eye, a glassy pale blue with a huge black pupil, watched her cautiously. It blinked, and Millicent blinked back in surprise.
“Be careful.” Sangfroid was at her side, ready for the unexpected. Behind her, Gallo hovered by the door, weapon raised.
“I think I will be perfectly fine.” Millicent watched a translucent ripple spread across the vulnerable pink flesh. The large eye blinked at her again, and she believed it was filled with fright. The creature was scared of her? Her gaze locked with the wide-eyed stare, and she felt herself tumbling towards that fear. It mirrored her experiences of the last few hours, the terror and brutality, the disorientation. Empathy filled the space between herself and the little pink squid.
“I think it’s communicating with me,” she murmured.
“What? Get it out of your head,” Sangfroid snapped. “I told you they mess with your mind.”
“It’s not dangerous. It’s…hurting,” she said.
Gallo flicked a glance at the dish. “Of course it’s hurting,” she said. “Look at the state of the poor little bugger.” There was a grain of compassion and disapproval in her voice, but only a grain; suspicion smothered everything else.
“Why is it here? Why is this one alive when all the others have been dismembered?” Millicent asked.
The Tea Machine Page 7
