by Mark Tufo
“Was kind of hoping I could stay here,” he whispered.
Again I dragged him.
“Stay down and stay quiet.”
“I can do that,” he replied when I got him on the far side of the room and away from the slightest of prying eyes, anyone took longer than five seconds to look would find us.
“Winter, need an update.”
“I’ve got Tallow. We’re laying low; he’s in no shape to fight.”
“Are you safe for now?” my sister asked.
“For now.”
“That’ll have to do. Let me know if anything changes or when you’re on the move again.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said. I heard her radio cut off.
“She’s not here!” This was followed by a loud sound of things crashing against a wall and floor. “Check the rooms!”
“Uh-oh.” I had been close to the door; I went and checked on Tallow, who had the good fortune of being asleep. The only place I could even remotely hide behind was the large machine that was monitoring the patient. It would be just big enough if I pulled my legs up against my chest and kept my head low. It would put me in a vulnerable position, but there weren’t many alternatives.
I could hear them coming back down the hallway. Furniture within the other rooms was being tossed around, absolutely unnecessary, as there was no place to hide. There was zero chance I would go undetected. It would be a short firefight, but I wasn’t going out with my back to the enemy.
“Cedar, if you’ve got any tricks, now might be the time to use them.”
“I’ve got just what the doctor ordered,” she said.
I’d stopped long ago trying to decipher everything she said. Maybe someday she’d write a book detailing Cedar-to-English translation, but for now, I got the feeling she meant to help. It had better be soon because they were in the room next to mine and were sounding angrier by the second. The floor underneath me rippled; had to be Cedar. The machinery began to wobble; through it all, Tallow slept. Not sure if it was going to be enough. I could see the light from the hallway under the door. I raised my rifle up, attempting to keep it steady, though my heart was threatening to push it to the side from its heavy percussive beats. My finger on the trigger, sweat rolling down the sides of my face, my irises narrowed as light began to filter in. The man coming in was violently tossed to the side, as was I. I had to twist to keep from landing on top of Tallow. It would do no good if he sat up and yelped in pain or surprise.
The lights in the hallway were flickering. As I sat back up, my rifle rested on the legs of the patient, whom I noted was strapped down, his blanket having shaken free. I recoiled from the thing that was there. It was a blend of Stryver and Human, though it looked nothing like either one. It was made more grotesque by its familiarity. Dealing with the natural repulsion of a Stryver was one thing, but this? I had no words. It was a fundamentally wrong creature that had no right to exist.
“Is this what’s going to happen to you?” I asked Tallow. He let out a small snort; more likely he was dreaming of the sweet cakes he liked to eat so much, rather than in reply to me.
“Come on. We need to pull back!” This from the man that had been ordering the troops.
I didn’t know why until I smelled the smoke. Cedar had saved me momentarily, but we were far from safe.
“Winter?”
I didn’t say anything because the door was stuck partially open, and the men were leaving but were not completely gone.
“Don’t know what you did, but it got them out of my area. Thank you.” I said, after the last of the Others left.
“Don’t thank me yet; we damaged their life-support systems. You’ve got ten to twelve hours at the most to find a way off that ship. It’s going to get cold in there in a matter of hours.”
“Not sure I’ll have to worry about that,” I said as I got up to look out the door. Fire was sweeping down the hallway with outpouring jets of an unknown propellant being added from the rooms.
“The Others there?”
“No, fire.”
“Are you trapped?”
“Not yet. I’ve got to get Tallow and get moving. Stay on the line with me; I like hearing your voice.”
“Anything,” she said. Even over the electronics, I could hear the concern.
I went over and stroked Tallow’s cheek; when that didn’t work, I pinched his side.
“Ow, Winter! I liked your hand on my face better.”
“Maybe next time wake up. How you doing?”
“Do I smell smoke?”
I nodded.
“Well, I was feeling better.”
“We have to get moving.”
He reached up, grabbed the bed and moved his legs so he could prop himself up.
“I know you feel like crap and I wish I could let you sleep for two days straight, but that’s not going to happen. I need you to be able to walk under your own power.”
“I’ve got this,” he said, looking directly at me. I could see the strain in his neck just from him holding the gaze. “What the hell is that?” He stumbled backward when he saw the thing on the bed.
“Not sure; nothing we need to worry about now.” My heart folded in on itself thinking that right this very moment that same DNA was coursing through his veins. I then had a flutter of hope it would all work out, that maybe his system would fight it on its own. “Cedar, I need to talk to Kolder.”
“You planning on making repairs?” she quipped, though a moment later she had him patched through.
“Kolder, this is Winter.”
“Hey Winter, you all right?”
“No time for niceties. I have in my possession a wrist device that gives me access to weapons and opens doorways. Is there any chance you can gain access to their computer? There’s some information I very much need.”
“Where’d you get it?” he asked.
“Lokken.”
“The commander? Holy pokes. What happens when you touch the screen?” He asked.
I pulled it free from my pocket and touched it. A red warning screen came up to alert me that the biometrics did not match. I told him as much.
“Any chance you can make her unlock it?” he asked.
“Does she have to be alive?”
“I can see that’s going to be a problem. I can hack into it, but I’m going to physically need it in my hand to do that.”
“Understood.” Now I was feeling the weight of Tallow’s immediate and long-term well-being pressing firmly down on my shoulders.
“You coming?” Tallow asked me, although he had only made it ten feet away.
“Yeah, not sure how I’m possibly going to be able to keep up with you. Let’s go find you a weapon.”
“That would be helpful.”
18
Reclamation
“Staff Sergeant Detter, can we put a team together to perform a hull breach?” Cedar asked. She was monitoring Winter, but switched to a private channel so her sister couldn’t hear.
“It’s possible, Captain, but putting together a large enough team to be able to locate them is going to be a trick. If we knew where they were, perhaps we could do a surgical strike. That ship is enormous; we’d be putting more lives at risk with very little reward.”
Cedar wanted to rail at the man. Just looking for her sister was reward enough, but she knew better, no matter what her heart told her. To risk over a dozen lives for a near futile rescue attempt made no sense…and then it did. The clock was already ticking for all of them.
“What about thermal imaging?”
“We can pick up a little from those close to the outer hull, but we don’t have a way to differentiate them from the enemy,” he replied.
She’d not heard from Winter for a few minutes. Occasionally she would fire on the ship out of sheer frustration. She knew she was being slightly childish and didn’t care.
“Where are you, sis?” She was now flying around. “Wait—she said
there was a fire.”
“Excuse me?” Staff sergeant Detter asked.
“A fire. Winter said there was a fire. Wouldn’t thermal imaging pick that up?”
“Kolder, you heard the captain! Get on it!” Detter yelled.
It was tense moments before she heard anything back.
“Good news and bad news, Major,” Kolder said. “Good news is, yeah, we can pick up the heat from a fire; bad news is there are seven raging right now. That leads to more bad news.”
“Can’t wait,” Cedar replied sardonically.
“Those fires are going to eat through their oxygen supply.”
“Faster than the cold seeping in?” Cedar asked.
“It cuts the amount of time they have to get out of there in half.”
“Detter, how much time to break into a hull?”
Detter knew what she was asking. “We’re going to need a bit of luck; we can conceivably check out three, maybe four of the fires before we run out of time.”
“You have your orders.”
19
The Hunt
“Winter.”
“Little busy,” I whispered. I had poked my head around a junction point. There were a half dozen people scrambling to move farther away from this damaged section.
“Need you to stay near a fire. We’re going to try and find you, pull you through a hull breach.”
“You know where I am?” I asked. Hope, which had been in short supply, loved the idea of this.
“Well, down to seven places.”
“How long?”
“If everything is on our side, I’d like to say half an hour.”
“And if not?”
A response was not forthcoming.
“So, I’m found quickly or I’m not?” I knew the implication she wasn’t voicing.
“We’re going to find you.”
“Cedar, I can’t really stay where I’m at. The fire is producing a thick smoke. We’ll die from inhalation long before the flames do us in.” I was thinking on the logistics of what Cedar was suggesting; the odds it was going to work were not in our favor. Even if they found the right blaze, they could punch through above or below or even on the other side of the fire. My best chance still lay with getting a shuttle.
“I’m okay,” Tallow said for no reason. I didn’t find that comforting.
“Get to the hangar Cedar; that’s where I’m going.”
Cedar may have growled or sighed in frustration; either way, it sounded the same. I tapped Tallow and had him follow me just as the smoke billowed down toward us and forced us into action. It was clear as far as I could see, but I could hear activity and it was close.
“Stay close to the wall.”
“I can do that,” he answered; he was already leaning against it, so that wasn’t going to be a problem.
I stopped as a door opened immediately to my left. The man took a quick look at me then shut it. Already spotted and we had barely begun our journey. The door opened again and a rifle blast blew through a display not a foot from my face. He was adjusting his aim when my shot struck his weapon; the molten metal flowed onto his hand and merged with his body before he could let it go. He was howling in pain as he backed away; even with the door shut, I could hear his anguish.
“Think he told anyone?” Tallow asked.
“Don’t think he had enough time.” I was happy to notice that Tallow had more color in him; that pale gray had not been flattering.
“Think that gun still works?”
“You going to pry it from his hands?”
“Probably not.”
We were moving as fast as we dared. I constantly kept looking behind us waiting for any stragglers or even a squad lying in wait to come out and find us.
“Someone’s coming,” Tallow said. He was ten feet behind; he’d stopped when he heard something. We were not in an advantageous position—no rooms to hide in and absolutely no cover.
“I’d take a sword right now,” Tallow said as he moved closer to the noise.
I wanted to kill him before he got killed. Two men and a woman rounded the corner, Tallow threw a punch that buckled the knees of the first man and sent him sprawling to the ground; he was unconscious before his head snapped off the deck. The woman was reaching for a small firearm at her hip—Tallow reached for it before she could, pulled it free while at the same time sending a kick to her knee. The loud crack of bone as her knee locked was followed immediately by her cry of pain.
“I surrender,” the other man said, his hands in the air as Tallow pointed the pistol at him.
“Sorry, no prisoners,” Tallow said as he whacked the man in the side of the head with the firearm.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Been practicing with Lendor and the Earth Corps; they call it hand-to-hand combat. All things considered, I’d still rather have a weapon,” he said, holding the pistol up.
“Whoa,” I repeated. “You’re going to want to take her wrist device or that thing won’t work.” The woman was on the ground, cradling her damaged leg.
“Leave me alone,” she screamed.
“Just need the thingy on your wrist,” he told her.
“I’ll brick it!” She had a wild look in her eyes.
“Not sure what that means, but if you break it, I’ll be forced to do something I won’t be proud of.” Tallow moved closer.
She watched him, gauging if he would make good on his threat. Finally, she extended her arm so that he could take the wrist device. “You’re both going to die on this ship. And I’m going to laugh over your broken bodies when it happens!”
“Not like you’re getting out of this floating coffin,” I told her. “Come on, Tallow, let’s go.”
“You want to leave her conscious?”
“I just want to leave her.”
We’d no sooner rounded a corner than she began to scream for help. Tallow paused.
“No time; come on. Feeling better?”
“Crazy, right? Could hardly move and now I feel better than ever. Not sure what they did, but I feel like I could have taken five of them on. Wish I had a rifle, though.”
“Having a little barrel envy?” I asked.
“What’s that even mean? Forget it, I’m sure it’s something Cedar told you.”
We’d gone down two more halls and had seen—and more importantly, heard—nothing; that was when our luck ran out. Five soldiers were waiting for us at the next intersection. They were behind a blaster shield that prevented us from getting any clean shots off. We did not suffer that same luxury. We were far enough away that it was a difficult shot for them, but our escape route was effectively blocked.
“Door!” Tallow yelled, pulling, more like dragging, me back as shots were fired. We fell into the room in a heap, quickly scrambling to get back up. “Empty.”
Empty of people, that is. The room itself was full of steel slab tables and either medical equipment or stuff used for experiments, or both, though I didn’t want to think of that. Glass bottles full of various colored liquids lined the walls; more than a few had an unidentifiable mass floating within. Some were not unidentifiable; those I did not stare at long. To our left was a series of glass panels that looked into the next room.
“Come on! We have to get to the next one before they surround us.” I grabbed Tallow, who was watching the door we had just entered. I took a chair and hurled it through the glass, the noise alerting anyone nearby to exactly what we were doing.
I had just turned to Tallow and was looking past him as the door opened. A canister was tossed in. My mind flowed out and snapped back; again, the last of the glass was crashing down to the floor. I reached and grabbed Tallow’s shoulder, adrenaline giving me the strength to pull him toward me, I pushed off with my legs; we were halfway through the new opening I had made when the concussive force of the canister exploding rattled my skull. We landed awkwardly, me on my shoulder, Tallow taking the brunt on his head.
He was shouting at me. I couldn’t
hear much; there was a warble in my skull, followed by a voluminous echo. He was asking if I was all right, though I figured this out only by the movement of his lips. The taste of blood was in my mouth. He was dragging me away from the broken windows, colorful rays were blasting past. Glass was exploding all around us as the Others’ assault team moved closer. I still could not hear, and my head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, and apparently, I was bleeding. None of that kept me from moving as Tallow and I struggled to get behind a table.
When Tallow realized I could not hear, he began using hand signals he had learned. They were basic enough, but right now, I wished I had attended a few more of his training sessions. He held up two fingers and pointed back the way we had come. Then three fingers to the door we were now facing. He wanted me to cover the entrance as he shot at the two behind us.
“Be careful.” I could not tell if I actually said the words aloud. He rose his head just high enough to take a look. Placing his rifle on the steel table, he fired and ducked down just as the door I was looking at opened. I fired before anything or anyone had the chance of coming in. Tallow spun just as another canister came through. I thought for a moment perhaps I had dilated time again because of the speed with which he moved. He caught the small explosive before it had a chance to hit the floor and flung it; it clipped the doorframe before flipping back out into the hallway. His forward momentum brought him crashing into the wall in front of me. He grunted as he collided. The explosion tore the door from its frame and sent it hurtling not inches from his head.
20
Cedar’s Deeds
“That’s new,” Cedar said as she looked upon a section of the ship that was changing. It was morphing from its box-like structure into something she could not identify, and it left her with serious feelings of foreboding. She moved in closer to get a better look.
“We’re going to need help, Cedar!” Winter sounded out of breath. “Surrounded…somewhere close to the medical bay.”
