by T. F. Grant
“The door,” Sara said suddenly. “It made a lot of noise when it fell, wouldn’t that have woken them up.”
“Shit,” Kina snarled. She reached for the switch on her helmet to turn on the speakers, and looked up at the ceiling. “Freck, we don’t know they’re faking. I can’t just yell.” She took her hand away from the switch, reached behind her back, brought forward the grenade launcher, and slapped a black-banded magazine into it. HE rounds. “Eyes up. Watch those buggers.” She let the grenade launcher fall back on it strap and lifted her assault rifle again.
***
Dylan so did not like this. Stalking forward under a ceiling of two-meter-high bugs, with Tairon, craziest son of a bitch he had ever met, beside him. He reached around, readied his grenade launcher, and returned it to his back. This was going to go bat-shit crazy, he just knew it.
All he wanted was the book. He didn’t need the trunk of a dead Drift. He could just grab the book and run. Leave Tai behind, yeah… like he’d do that. Like he would leave Tai and Sara and the others behind just for a stinking book.
Bloody books, just paper and ink—or in this case paper and enzyme—not worth dying for, not worth killing for, not worth letting fifty-four other people die… Enough. He would get the book and get it back to Sweet-Sap, and then…
What? What would he do then? The Drifts freaking owned him.
Tai halted and crouched, looking to Dylan’s right.
“Keep your eyes open, Dylan,” Tai whispered over the comm link. “You almost walked us into that.”
Dylan could see another pile of those small spidery things. They were quiescent, but those closest to his foot were twitching, their antennas waving in the air.
“Back up,” Tai said. “We’ll go around to the left. Get focused, Dylan. This is not the freaking Haven.”
“Yeah.” Dylan breathed deeply three times, centering himself. “I’m in it now.”
Tai took a step back, moving around the table, slow and steady, scanning the floor before he placed his foot down. Dylan emulated his movements.
Halfway there.
***
Kina swept her eyes across the ceiling, down the book stacks, across the floor—noting where Tai and Dylan had advanced to—and then back up to the ceiling. Quartering the space, never letting her eyes stop moving. To stop watching would be to die.
This was an ambush; she could feel it. She could taste it in the salt of her sweat trickling into her mouth. Why the freck did it have to be void hornets? Those bloody things could fly in space. They could survive hard vacuum. And they would tear you limb from limb in an instant.
If you were lucky.
If not, they would paralyze you, drag you home, put you in a little paper cell, and stick a bunch of eggs inside you to hatch and eat you alive from the inside out. All the while, you screamed inside your own head, unable to even open your mouth, but fully conscious and aware of what was happening to you.
She touched a HE grenade on her belt. That would not happen to her. Her quartering gaze stopped for a moment as it skated across Sara. Or you, my love, I’ll not let them take you alive.
“Movement,” Tooize whistled.
***
Tai licked his dry lips and took another step. Ten meters left to the trunk. How heavy was a Drift anyway? He was about to find out.
Dylan crouched behind him, watching the shelves to each side and the ceiling and the floor as Tai moved forward. He seemed focused now, ready for anything. Good.
The intercom cord pulled taut between them, and Tai sank to one knee, taking up overwatch as Dylan stalked up behind him, placing his feet as near as possible to where Tai had stepped. He slipped past Tai, advancing toward the corpse of the Drift and the book lying beside it.
So obviously a trap.
Tai touched the grenades on his belt and kept watching.
What was that?
“Movement,” he hissed.
***
Sara snapped the assault rifle to her shoulder and scanned the close-packed mass of hornets through the optical sights. Even in the darkness she could see that the rhythm of their movements had changed. It was more erratic, more individual to each hornet. They were waking up.
“Movement behind,” Lofreal whistled. “More of them damn spider things.”
“The hornets and the bugs are working together,” Sara said.
“Agreed,” Tooize said. “We need to get out of here.”
“Hold fire,” Kina hissed. “Tai and Dylan are almost there.”
Sara dropped her gaze. Dylan was stuffing that damn book into his pack. For a moment, Sara thought he would run for it and leave Tai to his fate, but he didn’t. He grabbed one end of the trunk, and Tai grabbed the other.
“I should have gone with them.” Tooize sounded irritated. “I could have carried that thing under one arm.”
“You may have to,” Kina said. “But first we cover their retreat. How far away are the bugs, Lofreal?”
“Twenty meters. They have stopped advancing.”
“Keep an eye on them,” Kina ordered. “Load your grenade launcher with an incendiary, Sara.”
“Incendiary! We’re in a room full of books and paper.”
“No, they’re in a room full of books and paper. We’re in the corridor outside.”
“Tai and Dylan are in there.”
“I know. Now do as I say. Right frecking now.”
Sara snapped a red-banded grenade into the underbarrel launcher on her assault rifle. “Done,” she said.
Kina loaded her assault rifle launcher with another red-banded grenade.
Sara looked up. Just in time to see a group of the hornets drop away from the roof and swoop toward Tai and Dylan as they struggled under the weight of the Drift corpse.
Tooize opened up with the minigun, a lance of flame belching from the barrels as he blasted away at the diving insects, which twisted and turned in the air on huge gossamer wings.
Heat behind as Lofreal lit up the advancing arachnids.
“Fire left, Sara,” Kina yelled and fired her own grenade to the right. It arced through the air, hitting the ceiling in amongst a tight cluster of hornets that had not yet moved. A moment, the soft crump of an explosion, and the papery nests behind the hornets came alight.
Sara lifted her rifle, sighted carefully, and squeezed the trigger of the grenade launcher. Another dull crump and another flame-red glow started in the ceiling.
Kina yanked her automatic grenade launcher over her shoulder, letting her assault rifle hang by its strap, and started firing HE rounds at the bases of the shelves.
***
“What the freck is she doing?” Dylan yelled at Tai.
“Void hornet eyes see lower wavelengths than us. She’s blinding the buggers. Now move.”
Explosions crashed. The heat of the fire raged across the ceiling. The incredible noise of the minigun whined and roared. Damn, this trunk was heavy. Dylan staggered along behind Tai. They needed both hands to carry the dead Drift. Their rifles and other weapons swung free on their straps.
“Freck.” Tai dropped the trunk, ignored his assault rifle, and threw a grenade. “Down!”
Dylan dropped.
Flames belched in front of Tai. Too damn close. But Tai threw two more grenades in quick succession. Incendiaries. That would mean…
Dylan looked around Tai and saw a pile of those nasty-looking spiders roasting in the aisle. The ones in the back were shying away from the flames. “Go right!” he yelled at Tai. “Go right.”
They grabbed up the trunk and charged to the right. It didn’t feel so heavy now.
Flaming wreckage fell from the ceiling, scattering fire around them. Shelving crashed and fell, tipping more books, more fuel, into the inferno rising from the floor. The minigun continued to roar, joining the popping sound of the assault rifles and more explosions, more crashing. It was getting hot inside the suit. And above it all, the constant buzz of the hornets searching for them.
Through the smoke and the flames and the hellish noise, Dylan and Tai fled as fast as they could. And in that moment, Dylan truly found his center. In the mayhem and the smoke and the flames, he lost his fear of death, his fear of life, his fear of everything. This… this havoc… was what he was born for. “Let slip the dogs,” he whispered.
***
Sara squeezed off a tight burst of fire and hit one of the hornets. It seemed to stagger in the air and then fell toward the flames rising from the floor.
Kina fired another tight burst and hit another. “Where the hell are they?” The grenade launcher hung from its strap, with a fresh red-banded magazine attached. She would add more flames, Sara knew. Without a second’s hesitation Kina would add more heat to the firestorm raging through the library.
Sara scanned the smoke and the flames. She could see nothing.
“Gun’s starting to overheat,” Tooize warned.
That was not good. Only the constant barrage of rounds from the minigun kept the hornets at bay.
“Running low on fuel,” Lofreal added. “The spiders have stopped advancing for now, but they’ll be back.”
“Where are you, Tai?” Kina breathed. “Where are you, you mad-arsed crazy son-of-the-biggest-bitch-on-Haven?”
***
Tai’s lungs burned, his legs ached, his arms cramped from the weight of the Drift. He could hear Dylan gasping behind him. But still they ran on.
A twenty-meter-high bookshelf collapsed behind them, throwing sparks and flames into the air. Dylan staggered, almost dropping the trunk. Tai grunted as the weight yanked at his already overburdened back. But Dylan managed to keep his feet, and they ran on.
Something swirled out of the smoke.
A hornet.
It lashed at Tai with its stinger. The armor stopped it penetrating, but the force of the blow threw Tai off his feet. The hornet hovered closer. Tai scrabbled at his gun belt, reaching for his Dorian.
A machine pistol barked out a volley of rounds. Dylan’s fire cut the hornet in half. Black blood splattered across Tai’s faceplate. He wiped it away and looked up.
Dylan stood over him, holding the machine pistol in one hand and the large-bore revolver in the other. Blasting away at the hornets diving toward them. Damn, could that man shoot.
Tai grabbed his assault rifle and joined the fray.
“Clear,” Dylan yelled as the last hornet crashed to the deck. “But there’ll be more on the way.” He was reloading the machine pistol as he spoke, taking out the empty mag, putting it away on his belt—for all the world as if he was at the range—and slamming in a new full magazine. “Let’s move,” he said.
***
Sara saw movement in the smoke. She lifted her rifle, sighted, then breathed a sigh of relief as Tai and then Dylan staggered out of the smoke, still carrying the trunk of the dead Drift.
She reattached the comm line that had separated in the firefight.
“There,” she cried. “There they are.”
“Thank Christ,” Kina said.
Tai staggered to a stop beside Tooize. He and Dylan dropped the dead Drift. “All yours,” he gasped.
Tooize slung the minigun over his back, picked up the trunk, and balanced it on one huge shoulder with one arm. Two of his other hands drew auto-shotguns and held them as if they were revolvers. His final arm threw a couple of grenades. He pulled the pins with his teeth. Kronacs were more useful than just day laborers when you needed multiarm weaponry.
Kina rearranged the intercom leads, connecting them all in a single line with Lofreal and Tooize at the rear, she and Tai at point, and Dylan next to Sara in the middle. “Time to frecking leave.”
Tooize started firing the auto-shotguns.
“Watch left, Sara,” Dylan said. He sounded calm, almost happy. “I’ll watch right.”
“Let’s go.” Tai led the way, firing short tight bursts with his rifle to clear a path through the arachnids. Kina was shooting right along beside him.
Tooize walked backward, blasting away at the hornets crowding into the corridor with his two shotguns. Lofreal lobbed HE grenades past him into the corridor.
Step by step the group of scavengers fought their way past the chapel into the lobby. Tai threw three incendiary grenades in through the door of the chapel as they passed it. Flame belched.
Tooize holstered the auto-shotguns. He checked if the minigun had cooled down and brought it to bear on the corridor, blasting a tight line of holes in the ceiling of the corridor leading to the library. “Explosives,” he whistled.
Dylan turned, lifted his grenade launcher, and fired a whole magazine to land where Tooize had cut lines of holes in the ceiling. With a smashing roar, the ceiling crashed down, blocking the corridor.
“We’ve gained some time,” Tooize said. He slapped Dylan on the shoulder. “But not much.”
“Then let’s not waste it,” Tai said. “Time to run. Speakers on. Intercom leads out.” He yanked the lead out of his helmet and snapped down the switch beside it. “Kina,” his voice boomed from the speakers in the helmet, “take point. I’ll back you. Tooize in the center with Dylan. You pair are carrying the prizes. Lofreal, tail end; Sara backs you. Move now, move to live.”
Kina ran forward with Tai ten meters behind her. She was carrying a lever-action shotgun now, her assault rifle swinging on her back. Lofreal now had Kina’s grenade launcher in her hands as she backed up the corridor. Sara ran in front of her, protecting her back as Lofreal protected the rear of the line.
They raced up the stairs. Every so often they would hear the boom of the shotgun, followed by the noise of an assault rifle on full auto, and pass blasted piles of those arachnid bugs scattered across the stairs.
***
Tai swept left while Kina circled right around the atrium. Neither one of them went anywhere near the bisected corpse lolling obscenely from the jump tube. They didn’t speak but used hand signals. Something felt very bad about this place.
Kina moved with all the grace and silence of the Wraith, assassin for hire, she had once been. Kina had given up that life to become a scavenger, but she hadn’t lost any of her skills.
Or her instincts.
She whipped her shotgun around, her gaze locked onto the sights. She only looked where the gun pointed. And right now it pointed at the jump tube. Tai kept scanning with his rifle, keeping the sights moving.
What had Kina sensed?
A long snakelike tentacle complete with razor-teethed suckers lunged out of the jump tube, smashing the skeleton out of its way. It hovered in the air for a moment. Swaying. At the tip of the tentacle a node-like protrusion peeled back to reveal a single unblinking eye.
Kina’s shotgun boomed, splattering the eye; the tentacle whipped back out of sight.
“Grenades,” Kina snapped. “HE. Now.” She was already leaping up to the tube, throwing her last two HE grenades down the hole. Tai joined her and threw his last three. Kina threw a couple of incendiary grenades down for luck. They threw themselves away, against the wall. The explosion rocked the floor beneath their feet as flames flashed out of the hole.
A piercing scream rent the air.
“This frecking place has its own God-cursed ecosystem,” Kina gasped. “And every freaking part of it thinks we’re food.”
The others arrived at the atrium.
“What was that?” Dylan asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Kina said. “Everybody fit? Good. Let’s get the hell off this station. Lofreal, how much fuel is left in the fire-lance?”
“About three good burns’ worth,” Lofreal whistled.
“Take point with me. Sara”—Kina’s voice softened—“you and Tooize guard our rear.”
“Got it,” Sara said in a determined voice.
“She in charge now?” Dylan nodded to Kina as Tai joined him in the middle of the group.
“Only when shit gets seriously frecked,” Tai replied.
Kina glanced back at him and grinned.
�
��Oh, and,” Tai added, “stay away from the jump tube, there’s a good lad.”
***
Kina pointed at the wall of shimmering fungus. “Burn it.”
Lofreal lifted the fire-lance and ignited the flame, playing it over the wall. The fungus flashed red and recoiled from the flame, pseudopods lashing out across the corridor in thick fibrous tangles.
“Burn it all.” Kina shook her head. She had just known this crud was not just making pretty colors.
Lofreal used up the last of the fuel, but the fungus burned merrily in a curtain of flame across the corridor.
“Now what?” Tai said as he came up behind her.
“Now we wait for the fire to die down,” Kina answered.
“The fungus?”
“Yup.”
“Probably shouldn’t have stuck my finger in it, then.”
“Probably not.”
“Clear behind,” Tooize whistled.
“Just the gantry left,” Dylan said. “Over that lovely deep pit.”
“Yup,” Tai said.
“Hornets fly,” Dylan added.
“Yup.”
“Just thought I’d mention it.”
“Yup,” Tai said. “Check your weapons. Check your ammo. If anybody’s low, now is the time to speak up.” He glanced at Tooize. “How fast can you move with that log on your back?”
“Quicker than you, human,” Tooize whistled. “Lofreal, strap it onto my battle harness, please. I think I will need all my hands free.”
The group exchanged ammo, drank water from the tubes inside their helmets, and waited for the fire to subside.
***
Tooize led the charge across the gantry with Tai matching him stride for stride. They were having a bloody race, Sara realized as she sprinted hard to keep up. Was every single sentient being in Hollow Space crazy? Or was she crazy because she thought she was sane.
The gantry swayed and creaked under their pounding feet. Step by step they raced further and further out over the dark abyss below them. Where were the hornets? Had they all died in the inferno in the library?
