Star Wars: Death Troopers

Chapter 23 Inside

They'd been waiting for five minutes when the first alarm went off.

Kale had been explaining the plan for why he'd volunteered both of them to wait here. "When Dr. Cody gets up to the flight deck and unlocks the pod, we climb in and comm her back to tell her it's asking for launch codes like the ones that Sartoris had. She puts them through and we're out of here."

"She's not stupid," Trig said. "Besides, we can't just leave her here."

"The Imperials will send a rescue ship."

"How do you know?"

"She's high up," Kale said, gesturing vaguely in the air. "You know, connected."

"That still doesn't mean they'll come back for her."

"You're really creased about this, aren't you?"

"She helped out Dad in the end," Trig said. "That means something."

"Look." Kale regarded him with a maddening smile. "I know you're sweet on her, but…"

"What?" Trig felt his face and the tips of his ears growing hot. "Yeah, right."

Kale shrugged, the very picture of fraternal indifference. "Whatever you say. It's pretty obvious, though, just the way you stare at her. Not that I blame you-she's not bad looking." His expression darkened. "Just don't forget who she works for."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kale started to say something and that was when a high, shrill squeal cut through the hallway from the other side of a sealed doorway, some kind of localized alarm system. They both jumped and Kale swung the blaster rifle around a bit too brazenly, Trig thought-he was getting used to carrying a weapon.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Wait here," Kale said. "I'll be right back."

Before Trig could argue, his brother started down the corridor, the blaster held up by his chest. The sealed doorway in front of him opened with a soft hydraulic gasp and Kale stepped through it, paused there, and threw one last look over his shoulder at Trig. "Stay where you are," he said, and the doors sealed behind him.

A moment later the alarm fell silent. It was like something at the end of the hall had woken up crying, eaten Kale, and fallen back to sleep again. Trig shuddered at the image, trying to shake it out of his head and having no luck. He stood with his ears ringing, wondering what he was supposed to do, how he was even supposed to mark the time that everyone was away.

Restless, trying to keep his mind occupied, he turned back to the escape pod. The little red light was still on, but he tried the hatch anyway, tugging on it just in case Dr. Cody had already sprung it by remote. It didn't open. What had he expected? He put his nose to the viewport again, cupped his eyes, and squinted, trying to see if anything had changed in the arrangements of the glowing instrument panel, but he couldn't make anything out clearly.

Then, inside the pod, something moved.

Trig jerked his head back, his entire body stiff with shock, and he stumbled backward on unstable legs. His nerve endings seemed to have been replaced with thin hot copper wires, pulse racing so he could hear it clicking in his gullet. I didn't really see that, his brain whirred, the lights inside are just making it look like I did, but-

He held his breath, listening.

There was a faint scratching sound coming from inside the pod.

Trig took another step back, until he felt his shoulders make contact with the opposite wall. His eyes rolled over to the doorway that Kale had gone through a few minutes earlier, but Kale wasn't back-there was no sign of him. And the scratching sound inside the pod was only getting louder, an irregular but insistent scrape of fingers-or claws- against the inside of the hatch. As Trig listened he realized it was becoming faster as well as louder, more eager, as if it knew he was out here and wanted to get out with him.

Trig realized he was squeezing the comlink hard enough to make his hand cramp. He lifted it up and thumbed the power switch. "Dr. Cody?"

There was a long pause, and then her voice came back, clear and strong. "Trig?"

"Yeah."

"We're up on the bridge now. We're still looking for the override to open the pod. It shouldn't be much longer."

"Wait," Trig said. "Hold on. There's something inside the pod already."

"What's that?"

"There's something in it. I can hear it scratching."

"Hold on, Trig." Another long silence, this one stretching out until Trig thought he'd lost the signal. Then at last, Dr. Cody's voice said, "Trig? You there?"

"Still here."

"I've got the bioscan running up here for the entire barge."

"Yeah?"

"We're not picking up any life-form reading inside that pod."

Trig stared at the hatch, where the scraping had become maniacal clawing, and he could hear something else along with it, a wet, slobbering, toothsome sound, as if whatever was inside was almost trying to gnaw its way out.

Should have asked her about the dead bodies, he thought again, a little hysterically. Yeah, that probably would have been a good idea.

The words drifted out of him like smoke: "There's something in there."

"Missed that, Trig." "I said…"

"Okay," Dr. Cody's voice said, "here we go, I found the lock over-ride."

"No, hold on, wait…"

There was a click and the hatch swung open.