The Riddle (Alternate Dimensions Book 2)

by Blake B. Rivers

  I didn't know, and there was no point trying to deduce that now. Focusing, I lifted my head and looked right to the spot I remembered seeing the scientist.

  “They took her down that hallway,” I said, pointing. “The doors just at the edge of what I can see opened, then closed behind them, and that was it.”

  “If your feed's not delayed, that's the maintenance path. Workers with the appropriate clearance would gather up any sort of experimental waste and made sure it was processed properly for disposal or recycling.”

  “Where does it end up? The processing center, I imagine?”

  “Yes. It's completely sealed off from most of the ship, just in case of any sort of adverse reaction. We wanted it contained from the general population. We learned from the first lab we interned at.”

  “It's a start, then. Come on, let's go.”

  We headed over, back to slow going again now that everyone was scanning everything anew. The pace was frustrating, but understandable. I'd played enough space-horror games to know a lot of nasty things could go bump in the night.

  Thankfully, none of those things bumped us, and we made it down the narrow hall and to the doorway without incident.

  “I think we can just force this open,” Viys'k said, eying the solid sheet of metal. “Angel, can you blast where it meets the wall?”

  “Sure. Stand back.”

  This time, there was no argument, and we all complied. The half-kin captain lowered one of her bigger guns and fired straight at the junction where the door and wall connected.

  There was a pretty impressive light show, and the acrid smell of smelted metal filled my nose. My eyes watered, but I made out a neat little indent in both surfaces, glowing like molten lava.

  “Give it a few seconds. It's pretty cold outside of our suits.” Oh right. It was easy to forget that just beyond the environment my outfit was working hard to maintain was an oxygen-less, freezing wasteland that would kill me in seconds.

  I shivered, and Janix patted my lower back. “Were you just thinking about void-death?”

  “Yup.”

  “Try not to do that. It makes everything a lot scarier than it is.”

  “All it takes is just one little hole....”

  “Like I said, try not to think about it. Worrying won't fix a hole in your suit if it happens, and if it doesn't happen, what's the point of worrying?”

  “Good point. But I'm still probably going to have nightmares about this.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “If you guys are done with your mandatory banter,” Viys'k cut in, “I think it's cool enough. Care to give me a hand, muscles?”

  “Anything for a lady.” He said with a bow before crossing over to the door. Two of his hands went into the half-hole in the door, and one into the indention in the wall. He gathered in a deep breath of air in his lungs, then pushed.

  I could hear him exhaling hard as he exerted himself, and the striations in his muscles stood out dramatically. It was a pretty impressive display, like Hercules shrunken into pocket-sized form.

  That was a mild exaggeration. Janix was at least backpack-sized.

  I would have snickered at my internal stand-up routine at my companion's expense, but even I wasn't that self-absorbed. Instead, I clapped only slightly sarcastically as the door started to move, and he got it open far enough for even me to slip through.

  “Thank you, thank you,” he said with a bow. “I do appreciate a standing ovation.”

  “I would sit down just to spite you,” Viys'k countered. “But it's too much effort.”

  “I'll still take that as a win.”

  “You guys coming, or what?”

  Surprised, I looked up to see Angel and her partner had already slid through the narrow opening and were looking at us from the other side. “Right behind you,” I covered, like I totally hadn't forgotten the task at hand for even a split second.

  I pushed myself through the channel, but as I did, I couldn't help but imagine it suddenly slamming closed, smushing me into Andi-flavored paste against the wall. I really needed to stop with all the vivid, intrusive thoughts if I ever wanted a good night's sleep again.

  But I made it to the other side without incident, and so did Janix and Viys'k. That would have been a pretty hilarious turn of events, though–surviving countless attempts on our life just to be defeated by a faulty pressurized door.

  “What now?” I asked once we were all on the other side. This was as far as I had seen Jyra taken. Who knew what path they could have taken?

  “So, this shoot goes straight down to the processing area. They took her to either waste sorting, waste managing, or re-purposed output.”

  All right, so apparently, there was only one path.

  “There should be at least one type of security portal in the management area.”

  “Then that's where we'll go. I want an extra secure sweep of this area though. Don't want any of us getting pollution poisoning or some kind of death by toxic chemical.”

  “Yeah, my insurance doesn't cover that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I blinked, a bit caught off guard by the query. I was the one who wasn't supposed to understand everything. “You know, insurance. The thing that lets you go to the hospital and pays part of your bill. You have a monthly premium and co-pays and all that jazz?”

  “I have no idea what you're talking about. Medical care is a free right to every citizen of the Council. How primitive is your culture?”

  “Welp...apparently, very.”

  We moved forward without any more comments on my reality's health care system. I kept my eyes open for anything vaguely security port looking, but if I was being honest, I had no idea what I was looking for beyond maybe a glowing sign that said, 'IMPORTANT SECURITY STUFF HERE.'

  Shocker, there was no neon-lit sign. But we did pass through a set of doors that were barely hanging onto their frame, and Angel went right up to a busted console. “Here we are. I should be able to get in through this, but it's gonna take a minute. This interface took some deliberate kicks to the face. And by kicks, I mostly mean plasma blasts.”

  “I caught the implication, but thanks for the laymen terms.”

  “I do my best.” She took out some cords from her scanner and started putting them in places that I didn't realize were ports. “This is gonna take a couple minutes, though. Might as well scan the rest of the area to see if you can pick up any useful tidbits.”

  “By useful tidbits, do you mean things that can be taken back to the ship to be sold at a profit?”

  “Yeah, what else would that mean?”

  I snorted, but went about at least making an effort to poke about. Even if I had no idea what was valuable or not, I might as well try to make myself useful. I barely made it a few steps before Bajol's voice sounded through our helmets again. “I have a concerning update.”

  “Lay it on me,” Angel said, head still bent over whatever she was doing.

  “It's concerning the celestial object that was on a trajectory toward the base.”

  Viys'k let out a long sigh. “What, has it broken into a dozen other mini-comets loaded with magical explosive capabilities?”

  “No, nothing like that. It's just, well–”

  “Out with it, please. This isn't exactly the time for suspense.”

  “Well, I am picking up...life signs. About twelve of them.”

  All of our heads jerked toward Angel so fast that I almost got whiplash. It was a bit of a strange reaction, considering Bajol was coming from all our helmets and not just hers, but it seemed right. “What kind of life signs?” she asked slowly.

  “It's too far to get a reading, but what I can tell is that they're, uh…they're –”

  “Doctor.”

  “They're large. Very large. Unusually and dangerously large.”

  Angel let out a string of curses so impressive I was surprised our comms didn't set themselves ablaze. “Kodadt?”

  “I do not like mak
ing statements without proof, but yes. And not of the uninfected kind either.”

  “All right,” I said, trying to keep my tone light but having it end up sounding overly bright. “Time to kick off.”

  “Hold on, I just need thirty more seconds.”

  “I don't think we have thirty more seconds.”

  “Correct. I estimate the impact from the comet in twenty if it continues its current path without interruption.”

  “How did a group of kodadt get on a comet, though? One, they're all in quarantine on their planet. Two, this is the middle of space! What, did they hop on a shuttle then just decide to do-si-do over to an asteroid cluster?”

  “I'll give you one guess,” I spat. “And it’s big, dark, and cloudy.”

  “Forget the data, Angel. Let's go now.”

  “I'm almost there. Come on, this could be the key to everything. You're telling me you want me to just give up after we've come all this way?”

  “Ten seconds until collision.”

  “Come on! We need to go now!”

  “What? You're going to just abandon the best lead we have on saving your friend?”

  In that moment, I could see the rebel leader that fought for the freedom of her entire species. Her wide eyes, the way her lips pulled against her teeth, which were bared in a determined snarl. It was easy to understand how she had earned her nickname–she completely embodied the idea of a beautiful, yet terrible, heavenly warrior with lightning in her eyes. “Angel! What's the use in having the data if we're all dead?”

  She wavered just one more moment, defiance written across all her features. But then, something softened, and she was suddenly pulling her wires from the console and cursing.

  “Let's go,” she said flatly.

  “Thanks.” I didn't have time to gloat–not that I wanted to–because we were running. Or whatever the zero-grav equivalent to that was.

  It was strange to force our way back down the hall as quickly as we could. After our several close calls, I had come to associate certain sounds with running for our lives. The echo of our harsh breaths through our lips. Our feet pounding against the floor. The sound of approaching doom.

  But in the void of space, there was nothing. Just me in my suit and whatever came over the comms. It was isolating, and honestly, more terrifying this way.

  We made it about halfway down the corridor before a loud bang reverberated through the structure. Again, it was weird to hardly hear the noise, but to mostly feel it as it rumbled through the metal walls.

  “Collision,” Bajol said.

  “Where did it land?”

  “Just where the living quarter hall joins the lab. I calculate it will take them less than a minute to either claw their way to the opening or to me.”

  I wish I could say we picked up the pace, but there was only so fast we could go. “We're not gonna make it in time.”

  “No, and Bajol's a sitting duck out there.”

  “Got any suggestions, Zik?”

  “Hold on,” the injured Krelach squeaked. “I'm trying to remember.”

  “I can see them now from the window.” To his credit, Bajol managed to keep his voice fairly level. I would be freaking out right about then.

  “Pull up the ramp and get out of there!”

  “But you still need extraction!”

  “Yeah, but how're we gonna be extracted if you get ripped up into teeny, tiny, doctor pieces? Pull off. We'll find a new loading point.”

  “Understood,” he said reluctantly.

  And with little fanfare, our only way off the ship took off to hover at a (hopefully) safe distance.

  “Shouldn't we stop running now?” I asked as we continued to pelt along. “Because at this point, we're heading straight toward where the kodadt are going to be.”

  “Well, the way I look at it,” Janix said, “we've got two options. We can go back to the waste handling part of this place and be trapped there, or we can cut through the lab and go to the civilian quarters, where there's also bound to be a cafeteria, recreation room, weapons room, and plenty of other places to squirrel off to.”

  “Right. So, it's another gamble.”

  “Got to give a little to get a little.”

  “Yeah, let's just hope what we're giving isn't a pound of flesh.”

  “Don't worry. If the Kodadt get a hold of us, they're gonna want way more than a pound.”

  “Comforting.”

  Finally, we reached the door to the lab, and we burst through. We didn't hesitate for one moment, but I could hear the sound of claws scratching against the room above and see the dents in the ceiling.

  Just as Angel was about to lead us right back through the civilian branch we had just come from, a mangled, twisted limb burst through the ceiling, slicing through the air just in front of the tiny captain.

  She slid under without breaking her stride, the yellowed claws closing on air just above her face. Her body double rolled to the side, but I was still sprinting full speed toward the searching limb. Although my mind knew I needed to stop, my body was not athletic, or trained, enough to know what to do.

  So, there was only one option.

  Bearing down, I put all of my strength into my legs and leapt forward. Reaching down into myself, I called on the energy I felt coiling in my belly.

  “Andi!” I heard more than one of my companions scream.

  But I was already committed. I flew through the air, weightless for a moment. And in that moment, everything slowed. It would have been peaceful if not for the circumstances.

  Yet the circumstances were definitely there, in the form of a murderous, grasping, mutated arm. An arm that I just so happened to hit with the full weight of my body.

  I wrapped my arms around it, latching onto the elbow with all the strength I could muster. I felt that now-familiar rush of power charge through me, and my temperature skyrocket.

  Just like I hoped it would, the kodadt reared back, trying to pull its arm from the hole it had made. Using my momentum, I flipped around, so I was upside down while still holding onto the limb. As it rocketed upward, I extended my legs, and my feet slammed into the ceiling with enough force to shatter bones.

  But my bones didn't shatter. Quite the opposite, in fact. I dug in my heels, allowed the kodadt to pull me into a squat, then pushed off of the bent metal with everything I had in me.

  There was a sickening splitting and cracking sound, then a moment of resistance. That lasted only a moment, though, before I crashed into the floor with enough force to dent it.

  “Um, nice souvenir there,” Janix said, yanking me to my feet before I could collect myself. I let him yank me along, eying the still twitching, pulsing limb that I had literally torn from the kodadt's body.

  Right on cue, I felt myself start to gag, and then promptly threw up into my helmet. “Ugh,” was about the only word I could come up with.

  “You know the rules. You use the power, you pay the price.”

  “And that price just so happens to be inky upchuck all over your visor. Have fun with that dripping down your neck plate.”

  “Guess I won't have to worry about that if one of those creatures bites off my head.”

  In always too-perfect timing, a roar rippled through our ground. Looking back to the same hole in the wall that we had entered, I saw three kodadt pouring in.

  They were twisted, disgusting beasts, too corrupted from their true forms to even observe everything that was wrong. It was like a kaleidoscope of mutation, two heads there, open boils there, a tri-stacked jaw with a tongue that was too big to fit into a mouth.

  “I got it!” Zik's voice burst through the speakers, nearly scaring me to death and doing the kodadts' job for them. “If you can get to the hangar bay, you should be able to have Bajol come and pick you up there.”

  “Wait, if there's a hangar bay, why didn't we just land there? And why was that not our first go-to for a backup?”

  “Well, our hangar bay is for supplies only. So not only
it is about four-feet tall, but your ship will not be able to dock or lower a ramp.”

  “So, what? We're just going to be taking a running leap into space?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, good, just checking. Wouldn't want to set any false expectations.”

  “Yeah, less sarcasm, more running for your life.”

  “About that,” Viys'k said, several steps ahead of all of us, “I don't think we're collectively fast enough to make it.”

  Another glance back saw six more kodadt joining their friends. In a terrifying moment of déjà vu, I was reminded of our last chase with only one kodadt. And just like previously, these abominations were gaining on us.

  “Where's Creeden when you need him?”

  “Who?” Angel asked.

  “A nerd with a portable forcefield,” Viys'k answered. “He came in handy the last time we had one of these after us.”

  “Portable forcefield? That's genius! Andi, think you can make one of those?”

  “Me?” I asked as we skidded around a corner. “I don't even know how to use a microwave here, or if you guys even use microwaves for that matter. How do you expect me to build something like that on the fly?”