Emily burst into a run. She wasn't sure where to go. Wasn't even sure the sound came from this deck, not a deck above or below. The fluorescent lights were still off. Only the backup lights, pale little dots along the floor, glowed faintly. The ship was a labyrinth. The corridors twisted and turned, never ending.
She passed by many doorways to bunks. A few doorways were open, revealing the tourist cabins. They were quite a bit humbler than the royal suite—simple rooms like one might find in a hotel on Earth.
Inside one cabin, Emily saw a family lying across the bed, heads removed. The mattress was red with blood. When she passed by another cabin, she saw a rah inside. It was cocooning an old man. The man's wife already hung from a web, skin ashen. She had been drained of blood. Emily hurried by before the rah could see her.
A nightmare, she thought. This has to be a nightmare. Yesterday morning, I was in Buckingham Palace, a pampered princess. Now I'm trapped in a labyrinth in space with monsters all around.
She wanted to wake up, to find herself back home with her family. To go out riding with her mother. To listen to her father's tales of history. To stroll through the gardens and read away the hours in the library.
But that life was over. Her family was gone. The library, the gardens, those places of opulence—they had burned. Her life had changed. Overnight, she had been transported to another reality. She thought of people throughout history given horrible news. Your cancer has spread. Your spouse is cheating on you. Your newborn son will never walk. A moment—and life is tossed upside down, never to be the same. Now she had faced such a transition. They all had, every human on Earth and in space. They had woken from a dream and found themselves in a nightmare.
Lights shone ahead, purple, blue, and yellow. Emily followed them. Any place with light was a good place.
As she walked, the corridor expanded, and Emily found herself racing across a promenade. The chamber was enormous, easily the size of a sports arena, spanning the ship from port to starboard. You could fit thousands of people in here. Walkways, escalators, and elevators led to dozens of tourist attractions. Each attraction boasted neon signs, begging for attention. The lights flashed around Emily, spinning her head.
SEA OF FREEDOM AQUARIUM
CARNIVAL OF FREEDOM: KIDS HALF OFF!
DRACULA'S MANSION HAUNTED HOUSE
LADY LUCK CASINO
CABARET DINNER AND SHOW 19+
"It's all dreadfully American," Niles said. "Not a single teashop to be found. I don't know how Mr. Darjeeling tolerates it here."
There were dozens more signs, none for teashops. Emily raced by them. Apparently, she had found the Freedom's entertainment district. Or at least one of them. With the tourists all recalled into their bunks, the promenade was deserted.
Clattering claws sounded behind her.
Emily froze and stared. An eight-legged shadow moved along the wall.
She ran across the promenade.
She raced by a vintage arcade, a laser-tag maze, and a gift shop, seeking an exit. She wanted to find soldiers—or at least a dark place to hide. With all this neon, any rah who happened by would see her.
The claws sounded again. Closer now. Emily ran faster, heart pounding.
By chance, her path took her toward a towering animatronic brontosaurus. A doorway was set between its legs. A neon sign hung across the dinosaur's side, spelling the word DINOGOLF.
Can I find safety here? Emily wondered.
The mechanical dinosaur held a golf club in its mouth, but when it saw Emily, it still managed to speak. The words seemed to be coming from a speaker on its neck. The dinosaur's mouth moved clumsily with every word, trying and failing to lip-synch. The golf club wobbled like a cigar.
"Welcome to Dinogolf! Step between my legs and enter a land before time! Explore a world where dinosaurs roam! No outside food or drink allowed. Visitors will be charged one dollar per missing golf ball. Freedom Resorts and Entertainment Limited is not liable for any injuries incurred while climbing its animatronic attractions. Dinogolf! Where minigolf meets prehistory!"
Niles stared at the animatronic brontosaurus. "That is the worst robot I've ever seen. An insult to my kind."
Screeches sounded behind them. Emily turned and saw rahs racing onto the promenade.
She froze and tightened her grip on her katana, but the aliens hadn't noticed her yet. One rah overturned a table in the food court, and soda and french fries spilled across the deck. Another rah was carrying a half-eaten tourist. One rah had a Freedom the Frog plushie embedded on a dorsal spike; the doll was drenched in blood. A few other rahs leaped onto the tables, and one alien slammed into a carousel, knocking over the unicorns. The aliens were laughing, slurping, feeding.
"Where are you, humans?" one rah cried out. It was speaking English. The bastards knew English.
"Come out, come out, humans!" another rah said. "Come out, come out wherever you are! We just want to talk."
The other spiders laughed.
Emily ran toward the plastic brontosaurus. "We'll hide in there."
"What?" Niles said, clearly affronted. "Inside a miniature golf course? I'd rather die."
"I would rather live," Emily said, racing among the stanchions that formed a line to the brontosaurus.
The clatters and screeches rose louder behind them. Any moment now, the rahs would see her. She raced between the brontosaurus's legs, pushed her way between some plastic ferns, and entered the miniature golf course.
* * * * *
The ticket booth was abandoned. Emily ran into a plastic jungle. Fake palm trees, ferns, and grass rose all around. Eighteen animatronic dinosaurs rose from the prehistoric landscape, their jaws opening and closing, their tails swishing. The T-Rex, who wore big purple sunglasses, was moving his little arms as if doing the robot dance. Every once in a while, one of the dinosaurs unhooked its lower jaw and let out a prerecorded roar. It was dim in here, but thankfully the dinosaurs glowed.
Each dinosaur guarded another hole in the course. Players had to putt the ball between dinosaur legs, past sweeping tails, even into the mouth of one ravenous triceratops.
"Hi, I'm Terry the Pterodactyl!"
The voice came from above. A pterodactyl whooshed overhead, swinging from a cable. Emily didn't think it was part of the game.
As it dived over Emily's head, the pterodactyl opened its beak and squawked: "Buy your own glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs. Only at Dinogolf Gift Shop!" It flew onward, then came swooping back. "Remember to try our Dino Donuts at the Dinogolf Café! They're dinomite!"
"Can I shoot it?" Niles said.
"No. Be quiet. Or those rahs outside will hear us."
A screech sounded outside the golf course. Hisses and grunts followed. The aliens were talking in their own language. Claws clattered across metal deck plates, moving closer.
"They know we're here!" Niles said. "We're done for!"
"Shh!"
Emily grabbed the drone and pulled him into a thicket of plastic ferns. An animatronic stegosaurus rose nearby, guarding the first golf hole. You were meant to putt the ball between its legs, past its swinging tail, and into the hole. A few abandoned golf clubs littered the putting green. Golf balls lay around Emily, knocked into the ferns and forgotten.
For a moment—silence.
Emily crouched among the ferns, waiting, hiding.
Then—a clatter.
A hiss.
Peeking between the ferns, Emily saw a shadow move into the golf course. Eight long legs. A bloated abdomen covered in spikes. Something sniffed. Smelling. Sensing. Hunting.
Suddenly, all around Emily, the lost golf balls lit up like Christmas ornaments. They began to play jaunty calliope music.
The animatronic stegosaurus swung its neck toward Emily. Its metal jaw clattered open and closed, and a voice emerged from a speaker inside.
"Please return your lost balls to the front desk!"
Behind the stegosaurus, a rah screeched. It was a terrible sound. A sound like fing
ernails along a blackboard. A sound that could shatter glass.
Claws clattered. A shadow scurried.
Emily leaped from the ferns and ran.
She heard it behind her. A shriek tore across the golf course. Emily ran past a display case which held, according to a plaque, a real dinosaur bone. She saw the rah reflected in the glass, claws raised and ready to strike, jaw open to reveal rings of teeth.
Claws lashed, ripping plastic ferns. A claw tore into the animatronic stegosaurus. The crude robot crashed down. Its bottom jaw detached, but it still tried to speak.
"Please return … your … lost … balls …"
The rah stepped on it, crushing the machine's head, and kept scuttling toward Emily.
Emily panted, tripped on a ball, and hit the Astroturf. The alien squealed in delight, preparing to feast.
Heart pounding, Emily lifted a fallen golf club. She hurled it at the alien. The rah screeched, that terrible sound like shattering bones. With a swipe of its claws, it knocked the club aside.
Emily leaped up and kept running. But the beast was faster. She had to kill it somehow, but her katana could not penetrate that thick exoskeleton. She'd have better luck hacking at these animatronic dinosaurs.
That gave her an idea.
She ran toward the second hole. A fake cave rose there, made of hardened plastiform painted to look like rocks. An animatronic Neanderthal family stood inside, moving their arms and heads, cooking a plastic steak. The golf hole lay at their feet.
A red dinosaur stood outside the cave. It kept dipping its neck toward the putting green, rising again, bowing again. A golfer would have to time things right to putt his ball into the cave. Timed wrong, the golf ball would roll into the dinosaur's mouth.
A grainy voice emerged from a speaker on the dinosaur's neck. It had a thick Russian accent.
"I am Oleg the Allosaurus, the Red Dawn dinosaur. I hate freedom!" The plastic jaws opened wider, revealing several golf balls inside. "I'll eat your balls!"
The rah let out a bone-piercing cry.
Emily ran toward Oleg the Allosaurus. The giant spider followed, tearing through the putting green. Strips of Astroturf flew through the air. Golf balls scattered, glowing blue and red. Emily glanced over her shoulder, saw the spider pounce. She hurled another golf club. The rah snapped its jaw shut, mangling the club, and spat out the bent metal.
"Back, beast, back!" Niles cried, stabbing at the rah. The spider waved its claws, trying to knock the drone aside, but Niles kept dodging the blows. His lights flashed, blinding the beast. "Run, Emily! Run!"
Noble drone! Emily thought.
Using the distraction, she raced behind the animatronic allosaurus. While the rah was busy swiping at Niles, Emily shoved herself against the back of the dinosaur. She pushed with all her strength.
"I am Oleg the Allosaurus!" the machine said. "The Red Dawn dinosaur."
Emily groaned, giving it a mighty shove, digging her heels into the Astroturf.
"I hate freedom!" said the dinosaur. The tip of its tail rose off the ground. The dinosaur began to tilt forward.
"Niles, watch out!" Emily cried and gave one last mighty push.
The drone zipped aside.
The rah looked up.
The animatronic dinosaur fell down hard, crushing the spider. The rah squealed. Its legs flailed. But Oleg the Allosaurus was a big, heavy machine, and it pinned the spider down.
"I'll eat your balls!" Oleg warned, snapping his mechanical jaws.
The spider squealed, tried to shove the dinosaur off, but could not.
Emily drew her katana, stepped forward, then leaped back from a swiping claw.
"Filthy human," hissed the trapped rah. "I will devour your soul."
"Eat balls," she said.
With a swing of her katana, Emily sliced off Oleg the Allosaurus's lower jaw. All the golf balls in his mouth cascaded out, slamming into the rah, blinding the beast.
With a great cry, Emily thrust her katana.
The spider was too busy batting away the spilling golf balls. It never saw the blade. Emily stabbed the creature's eye, popping it like a boil. She shoved the sword down to the hilt.
The spider twitched and died.
* * * * *
Emily pulled her katana free from the dead rah. The blade dripped black blood. Niles hovered at her side.
"Oh, Emily, look at your dress." The drone gave a sniveling sound. "It's all such an awful, awful mess. Not just the dress. This whole sad situation."
A shadow stirred ahead, eight-legged. Emily took a step back, her katana raised. Another rah moved among the plastic palm trees. She ran toward the third hole, where a group of velociraptors raced back and forth along the putting green, their legs attached to rails. A third rah burst from behind a waterfall, roaring.
Emily fled, leaping over a stream, around a plastiform boulder, and over a nest full of colorful dinosaur eggs. As she vaulted over the nest, the eggs cracked open. Tiny animatronic dinosaurs emerged and began to sing "It's a Small World After All."
Rahs lunged from all sides. Emily swiped her katana, desperate to hold them back. A dozen or more now chased her, their claws destroying the fake trees, boulders, and singing baby dinosaurs. Soon those claws would rip through her flesh. Emily ran for her life, making her way to the center of the golf course.
A plastiform volcano rose in the center, as big as a house. Fake lava trickled down its sides, lit by small LEDs.
More spiders emerged from ahead. Their teeth snapped at Emily. A claw slashed her thigh, cutting the skin. Her blood dripped. Emily screamed, slicing, stabbing, unable to hold them back. They drove her toward the volcano. Desperate, with nowhere else to go, she clambered up the slopes.
She rose to the top of the volcano. A smoke machine was built into its vent, releasing a few weak puffs. Some tourists had tossed candy wrappers and empty soda cans inside.
Emily stood on top of the volcano, katana in hand, looking from side to side. The rahs were climbing the mountainsides all around, closing in on her.
"We're trapped!" Niles cried, floating beside her. "Oh, Emily, this is the end for us."
"Fly off, Niles," Emily said. "You can fly. I can't."
"Were that I were strong enough to carry you!" Niles said. "No. I prefer to die at your side."
A rah leaped toward them.
Emily swung her katana. The rah slid down the volcano. Another rah leaped from behind. Niles drove into it, knocking it down. But more of the giant spiders kept climbing, too many to defeat.
"Hi, I'm Terry the Pterodactyl!"
The voice rang across the golf course.
The animatronic pterodactyl, the same one Emily had seen when first entering Dinogolf, came swinging toward her from a cable.
The rahs looked up, hissing.
As the pterodactyl swung overhead, Emily reached up and caught its legs. The robot kept flying, pulling her off the volcano. She clung on with all her might.
"Buy your own glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs!" the pterodactyl said. "Only at Dinogolf Gift Shop."
It swung through the air, flying over all eighteen holes. The other dinosaurs were moving robotically below, aside from Oleg the Allosaurus, which still lay on his side, burying a rah.
"They're dinomite!" the pterodactyl cheerfully added.
From up here, Emily got a bird's-eye view of Dinogolf. Aliens filled it, all seeking her.
She spotted the exit. The small doorway stood behind a dinosaur skeleton with big novelty sunglasses. A neon sign shone. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP.
As the pterodactyl swung over the exit, Emily released its legs. She tumbled down and landed hard, banging her knees. A pained cry fled her lips.
"Princess!" Niles said. "Quick!"
The drone nudged her. The rahs were racing close. Ignoring the pain, Emily rose and ran with a limp. She raced into the gift shop.
* * * * *
Rows of shelves stretched before her. Some shelves held toy dinosaurs, copies of the
larger animatronic beasts in the golf course. Other shelves held more generic merchandise: models of the starship Freedom, World War III action figures, Freedom the Frog plushies, and an assortment of puzzles, key chains, and T-shirts.
A rah burst into the gift shop behind Emily. Then another.
She ran between the shelves, swinging her katana, knocking over merchandise. A rah slipped on a toy Commander King.
"For the Alliance and for freedom!" the little action figure said before the rah crushed its head.
A great rah leaped up before her, grinning. More rahs came from behind. One of the giant spiders knocked over a shelf of model starships, then stepped toward Emily, licking its chops. She was surrounded.
Just then, a ventilation grate opened on the ceiling.
A pale arm reached down from above.
"Grab on!" came a voice. "I'll pull you up."
"The hand of God!" Niles whispered in awe.
Emily reached up and grabbed the proffered hand. Her mysterious savior pulled her toward the deckhead. A few rahs leaped, slashing their claws and snapping their teeth. Emily curled her legs upward, narrowly dodging the assault.
The hand pulled Emily into an HVAC duct. Eyes gleamed in the shadows. Human eyes.
The rahs shrieked below. The spiders leaped. Claws scraped the vent.
"Hurry!" came a voice from the shadows.
The hand pulled her along. Emily followed. The duct was just wide enough that they could crawl. Niles hovered with them. The aliens roared in fury below. A claw punched through the duct, nearly slicing Emily. She screamed. The claw retracted, and she raced onward. Another claw burst through the steel, and this one scraped her shoulder. Emily yelped but kept crawling.
Finally the duct took them away from the gift shop, and the sound of aliens faded behind.
Emily allowed herself to collapse and tremble.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The Starship Freedom
80 million kms from Earth
08:30 December 26, 2199
King stood on the bridge, holding his drawn firearm, waiting to kill and die.
Starship Freedom Page 29