Fluency

15

A preternatural feeling of dread washed over Jane. She felt a strong urge to run, but logic told her that was a bad choice. She turned slowly, peering into the shadows around them, instinctively looking for a place to hide.

They’d covered several hundred feet since they left the deck-to-deck transport, but there were no doors in the immediate vicinity. They’d passed one just a minute or two before, but in the dark, without the connection to Ei’Brai guiding her through the mental maps of the ship, it was difficult to guess how far away that had been or how close another one might be.

Oh, God, turn on the lights, Ei’Brai, she thought, but he was no longer listening. Banishing Ei’Brai from her thoughts no longer seemed like the most sensible decision.

“Holloway—”

“Sh!” Jane sent Walsh a quelling look.

Something scuttled in the dark nearby.

“What…was that?” Ajaya whispered, her eyes gone wide.

Jane put her hand over Alan’s, steering the flashlight to one side. A creature the size of a house cat stood there watching them. It was hard to tell what it was, exactly. It didn’t precisely fit into any category Jane knew. The nepatrox had a maroon, segmented shell like a lobster or scorpion, but its head grew from its trunk more like a fish. It whipped an ominous-looking barbed tail around, as though agitated.

It crouched and opened its mouth. A hinge on each side unfolded, revealing fuchsia and coral-colored flaps as well as rows of jagged teeth. It hissed defiantly and took a few steps forward.

“Holy fuck, what next?” Bergen muttered.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Walsh grit out.

Ajaya spoke softly, “It hatched, didn’t it Jane? From the pupa.”

Jane nodded gravely. “Yes.”

Gibbs’ voice sounded mildly disturbed. “That little dude looks pissed.”

Ajaya said, “It looks like an arthropod of some sort. It appears to be territorial. Will it attack if we go further, I wonder?”

“I think it will,” Jane said. “This is what I was trying to warn you about. We should go back. The deck above this one stores Sectilius battle armor. We need to protect ourselves.”

“From that little thing?” Walsh said dismissively.

Ajaya frowned. “Some of the pupa are quite large, Commander.”

“Then let’s get going before they hatch. Move,” Walsh barked.

No one budged.

Gibbs spoke up, “Maybe Jane’s got the right idea. There might be a lot more of these things. They’re going to be hungry, don’t you think? What are they going to eat?”

The nepatrox advanced, hissing and slashing at the air in spirals with its tail. It was closest to Jane. She backed up involuntarily, bumping into Alan. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to push her behind him. She resisted his gentle shove and stayed put, noting that motion of any kind seemed to enflame the creature’s temper. But even that subtle movement antagonized it. It lunged forward, hissing, clacking its teeth together rhythmically, flaring and pulsing the bizarre, hinged flaps that framed its mouth.

“What else do you know about these creatures, Jane?” Ajaya asked.

Jane felt Alan’s hand on her shoulder, tensing as the nepatrox crept closer.

“They’re extremely aggressive. The stinger contains a paralytic. They prefer to eat their food while it’s still alive.”

Walsh glared at them with disdain. “I’ve seen rats bigger than that thing.” He shrugged off his breathing harness and gripped the strap at the top of the tank, moving deliberately toward the creature.

It held its ground, front claws prancing like an excited dog. The rhythmic gnashing and flapping escalated. It charged.

Walsh was ready. He swung the tank of compressed air like a golf club, striking the animal with a solid whump, sending it flying. It hit the wall and slid to the floor, lifeless.

Jane’s stomach turned over.

“Well, there’s a strategy for you,” Alan said dryly.

Walsh turned and glowered at them. “All right? Move out.”

“Ah, Walsh, you’ve got another little friend,” Gibbs said nervously, gesturing down the hall with his flashlight, revealing another creature emerging from the darkness.

Walsh’s eyebrows came down into a thunderous expression and he pivoted. Alan lifted his light a little higher, to join Gibbs’. Jane gasped. There were actually several creatures approaching Walsh’s location.

One of them was the size of a full-grown labrador retriever. It opened it’s hinged jaw, flaring the winged flaps to a span of three to four feet, then turned and scooped up one of the smaller creatures, choking it down before the thing could even struggle. It flared and pulsed its mouth flaps, letting out a shrieking cry.

The call was taken up by those around it. The chilling sound echoed and was answered again and again from farther and farther back down the hall.

The blood drained from Jane’s head. She felt lightheaded and cold. Her heart thudded and her muscles tensed to run.

The largest nepatrox regarded Walsh intently, its dark eyes gleaming with hunger, its tail swinging in long lazy arcs. It hissed.

“Walsh!” Jane called out. She wasn’t sure if she was warning him or pleading with him at that point. She felt helpless, rooted to the spot where she stood.

Time slowed to a trickle. She felt, rather than saw, Alan behind her rummaging inside his pack for his nine millimeter. Ajaya and Gibbs took up defensive stances, shoulder to shoulder, guns pointed at the end of trembling arms.

The lights came on with a bright flash. Jane flinched and blinked.

The creatures stopped advancing for a second and in that second Walsh fired a deafening shot into the largest animal’s open mouth. Its head exploded into a four-foot radius of gore, the hollow-tipped bullet designed for maximum destruction upon impact. The beast dropped instantly.

The other creatures sprang back at the sound, but quickly recovered, sniffing and hissing around their felled neighbor. Within seconds they’d ripped its carapace apart and were feasting on it.

Bile rose in Jane’s throat and she coughed reflexively. She was glad she hadn’t consumed anything for a few hours. She didn’t have anything to bring up.

Walsh stood there watching them, weapon at his side.

“Walsh!” Jane screamed, “Defensive formation!”

He came to himself with a start. He looked at his weapon, then back at them as though confused.

The others started yelling too, calling for him to come back to the group.

“Jane—get Compton’s gun out of his pack,” Alan urged in her ear.

She grabbed Tom and shoved him behind Ajaya and Gibbs, sliding the pack from his shoulders. She fumbled in the pockets until her fingers closed over the textured grip of Tom’s Beretta. There was a clip already loaded. She scooped up three additional cartridges and slid them into the side pocket of her flight suit. She pulled back the slide, and let it spring back into place, effectively loading the first round, then brushed her thumb over the safety, just like she’d been taught.

“You got it, Jane?” Alan’s eyes were wide and dilated. He jerked his head back toward the way they’d come. “Take Compton back to the deck transport, where he’ll be safe. We’ll never make it to the capsule.”

She started to protest, but weapons fire cut off any sound she might make. It was overwhelmingly loud in such an enclosed space. She looked up. Walsh had returned to them with more creatures in pursuit.

As a group, they retreated. The four of them fired into a growing mass of hungry animals, trying to keep them at bay. There seemed to be more arriving every second.

Jane glanced back. The hall behind them was clear.

“I’m not getting much penetration here!” Gibbs yelled.

“Aim for an open mouth!” Walsh barked. “It’s their weakest point! When you empty that cartridge, load armor piercing rounds!”

Alan shouted, “For the record, I’m very uncomfortable firing ballistics inside a space ship!”

Jane grabbed a hold of Tom’s arm and pulled. He took a single staggering step and stopped.

She pulled again. He resisted, swaying.

Gibbs backed into Tom and there was a precarious moment when it seemed like Tom might go down. Jane wrapped her arms around him, supporting his weight so he wouldn’t pitch forward and tried to ease him into movement.

But his legs just crumpled under him. He fell to his knees and Jane buckled too, under his weight. She struggled for a long, desperate moment, trying ineffectually to lift him back to his feet. He was dead weight against her.

“Jane!” Alan’s face was contorted in a tortured expression. “We’ll have to leave him.”

Gibbs and Ajaya kept looking back at her, desperation plain on their faces. They needed to move. The nepatrox were relentlessly pressing them back.

She shook her head in denial and eased Tom to the floor. She slipped the weapon in a pocket, grasped Tom’s arm, and pulled with everything she had, dragging him across the floor, back the way they’d come.

She pulled with a strength she didn’t know she had, Tom’s inert frame trailing behind her, ducking and swerving to avoid the slimy tendrils dropping from the ceiling. She glanced back, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She’d managed at least 100 feet back toward the deck transport. She’d hoped the others would be right behind her, but there was still a lot of distance between them.

She heard Ajaya declare, “Cover me—reloading.”

Seconds later, Alan yelled, “I’m out of ammo.”

Jane stopped in her tracks and turned, her hand going to her pocket and the clips there, but Gibbs had already passed Alan another clip. He was reloading.

“Make every round count!” Walsh roared.

Those few moments gave the creatures an opening. They surged forward, a few of them circling around Alan to attack from behind.

“Alan! Behind you!”

He and Ajaya were already aware, moving into a diamond-shaped defensive formation, backs to Walsh and Gibbs, as the animals gained more ground, slowly surrounding them.

She dropped Tom’s arm. She hated herself for doing it, but it couldn’t be helped. She slipped the breathing gear off her back and grasped it with her left hand, just as Walsh had done. Then she palmed the cold steel of the Beretta in her right and flicked off the safety with her thumb.

She couldn’t let them get cut off from her. She refused to lose all of them to this madness.

Her body vibrated with tension, itching for movement. She blinked in slow motion, a hyper-awareness sharpening her senses. She took off at a run. Nothing would get by her. She couldn’t allow it. Every pounding heartbeat brought her closer. They came to meet her with a greedy glint in every eye.

She swung her left arm like a metronome. Each sweep cleared the path between her and the others. She glanced back. One of the larger ones was smart enough to see she was distracted by the smaller ones and snuck by, heading for Tom.

She raised the weapon and braced herself. Without a second of hesitation, she fired. The recoil painfully compressed every joint in her wrist, elbow and shoulder. The scent of hot metal and burnt carbon stung her nostrils, but she’d hit it. It went down, possibly only stunned, but it was down for the moment, anyway.

“Jane—try to get away!” Alan shouted.

She didn’t reply. Resolution pushed her forward, inch by inch. She ignored the ache in her left arm and kept swinging. If she missed a shot the first time, she hit it the second. As she drew closer to the rest of the crew, the monsters came on her harder, faster.

Some of them got too close. She kicked at them viciously, hoping the military-issued boots were tough enough to protect her from the flailing stingers.

She curled her lip in contempt. The nepatrox would just as soon have a bite out of each other as they would out of the humans. The mass of them hissed and spat and sniped at each other as they advanced. There was but five feet left between her and the rest of the group. It might as well have been 100, because it was swarming with nepatrox.

The others were trying to use their tanks in a similar manner but they were tightly grouped and fighting both sides at once. They were being overwhelmed. They weren’t going to make it unless they tried something else. They needed some kind of strategy. She cast around, taking in the immediate environment.

Now that the lights were on, she could see there was a door, a few feet back and to her left. If that room were empty—if they could get inside—they would have the time to hatch a proper plan to get to the capsule and escape. That was as far as she could think, for now. They couldn’t keep going on this way. There were too many and more kept coming. They were all getting tired.

At worst, it would be just a break. Maybe they could pick off the larger ones, one at a time, through a crack in the door. At best, there might be something inside that room they could use. Tom was the only hitch in the plan.

She darted back to the door and tapped the door control. The door slid up. She smashed a few more animals then slipped inside. The lights came on, but nothing came to greet her. It appeared to be empty. Not even a slug. It was full of crates, like the first room they’d entered on the ship.

This room, like many in the storage hold, was vast. There was another door that opened into the room about 40 feet on the other side of Tom, closer to the deck transport. She wanted to kick herself. If only she’d dragged him that 40 feet farther or noticed the door sooner.

Old doubts prickled at her. She forced herself to ignore them and pounded back up to the group. “I’ve got a plan!”

“Oh, yeah?” Walsh called. “Let’s hear it!”

She looked down. A creature lashed its tail at her, way too close for comfort. She jumped back just in time, then bludgeoned the animal. Unless she got the angle just right, brute clubbing was far more effective at taking a nepatrox out than the pistol was.

“We’re going through this door. Ajaya, you’ll get there first, so you’ll have your hand on the door control and shut that door the second the last man is through. That’s your job.”

Ajaya nodded crisply. “Affirmative.”

“Ron, you’re the fastest runner. Once you’re through, I need you to head straight for the other door that opens to the corridor.” She gestured behind her with the pistol, toward Tom and the deck transport beyond him. “Don’t look back. Just get there and open it. I want you to lay down cover fire from there.”

Gibbs met her eyes and bobbed his head. “Understood.”

“Walsh, Alan, your task is to kill anything that gets through that door before it closes.”

“And what is your part in this plan, Holloway?” Walsh hollered.

“I’m going for Tom.”

Alan was shaking his head. “Jane—”

She cut him off with an order, “Spread out. You’re too bunched up. Give yourself room to move. Start moving toward the door.”

She clubbed a small one, then grit her teeth and fired at one that was getting too close to Alan. Her aim was true. It fell over on its side.

Alan jumped. “Jesus Christ, Jane.”

She ignored him and fired at one scuttling down the corridor, but all she got was a hollow clicking noise. She made an angry, frustrated sound. “I’m reloading! Someone shoot the one that’s going for Tom!” She fumbled with the release until the spent cartridge clattered to the floor.

There was hissing and magenta and orange flapping at her knee. Dammit! She hopped back and raised the canister a fraction of a second too late. The creature’s tail was quicker. It slashed at her leg. She grunted in disbelief before smashing the animal to bits.

“Jane, are you hit?”

“No! Stop looking at me and concentrate on what you’re doing!” She leveled a few more nepatrox before she could get a glimpse at her leg. She felt a small amount of pain in that leg that seemed to be growing. The fabric of her pants’ leg was torn, but she couldn’t see skin.

She stomped her foot as she moved a step closer to the group. She felt that. That was reassuring. She pushed down fear and ignored the pain. She’d be safe soon enough.

Over the din, Ajaya enunciated, “On a count of three, step back, Jane, and reload. I’m going to try something.”

Jane sent her a terse nod. Ajaya counted. Jane readied herself to slip the harness over her arm, go for a clip, and back out of range—in a single, time-saving motion.

Ajaya called out, “Three!”

Jane leapt back. As she slipped the new magazine into place, she looked up to see Ajaya executing some kind of ninja-worthy move.

With her tank of compressed air held neatly before her, Ajaya went low to the floor and spun in a swift, forceful arc, sweeping the animals out of the way, effectively clearing a swath before her. Then, in a sprightly leap, she was one foot closer to the open door and safety.

“Move!” Jane yelled. The men were reacting sluggishly to the sudden advancement. “Do that again, Ajaya!”

Jane put two bullets down the throat of a large animal that was under the mistaken impression that it was about to face off with her and smiled as the image of Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Cairo spontaneously came to mind for a split second. She vaulted back at Ajaya’s three-count, attempting a similar move as she went, shoving them sideways and back. The creatures were flung in their wake, sliding into each other, disorienting the general mass of them for just a moment.

They were almost there. It was working. She couldn’t keep the grim smile from her lips as she kicked one in the side of the head and put another one down with a round into its yawning mouth, spattering its brains in every direction.

“Again—then inside! Everyone get ready. No mistakes. Do your part!”

She counted aloud with Ajaya, humming with excitement, primed to run. She knew they would succeed. She wouldn’t look back.

On three, she turned. She pumped her legs like pistons. She sprinted for Tom.

Then, the gravity went out.