by Alex Kings
Compared to seeing it through the telescope feed, the specs didn't seem to do it justice. It was a fortress. It had the same ragged, spiny hull as Glaber hunters, but it was big and looked far, far meaner. It didn't have its own monopole cannons, but that scarcely mattered. It could, if it so pleased, swipe aside the Outsider without hesitation. It could kill the shuttle in a fraction of a second, if it saw them.
But it couldn't see them.
Rurthk didn't want to push his luck. He kept up a reasonable acceleration. The ship wasn't too far away, and they had plenty of time.
Of course, he realised, if it jumped away before he reached it, they'd be left alone to die in interstellar space. The queen wouldn't know to check back. He shrugged off the thought as soon as he had it.
The ship approached in all its bulk. Soon it became visible through the window without telescopic help. Rurthk decelerated, heading towards the aft, where six large sublight engines were arranged in a ring.
They'd studied the specs. There was a space where the engines met the hull. There. Rurthk could see it. He brought the shuttle in slowly and settled against the ship, a mosquito on the body of a dinosaur. They landed with a thump. Rurthk double-checked they were in the right place, then began to cut through the hull.
“Alright, everyone,” he said, swinging around. “We go in weapons ready. Laodicean first. ”He switched to Glaber to repeated the instruction, adding, “Urru, you follow him.”
Urru, the Glaber soldier, gave a short, sharp nod. She clutched her assault rifle.
“Everyone, as soon as you're in, use your pheromone bottle to sample the local atmosphere. It's not perfect, but it'll do. Now let's go!”
Chapter 43: Interior Spaces
The gravity shifted 90 degrees as they came through the bottom of the shuttle. Laodicean used his effector fields to help each of them through the hole.
It was dark apart from the lamps of their weapons. Once he was through, with his rifle ready, Rurthk sniffed the air, listened intently, and looked around.
They were in a large, dark cavity, one of the ship's interior spaces. It was only a few feet wide, to narrow for Laodicean to fit his globe of water properly, but quite long. The walls rose up above indefinitely – there was no visible ceiling. Girders crossed the space at waist height and at regular intervals above that. The air was humid and thick. A few floating insects had made in here and moved about aimlessly. The sound of rushing water, coupled with mysterious deep booming noises echoed down from above.
Rurthk took a sample for his pheromone bottle.
“Everyone ready?” he said, looking around. “Okay, first stop, a hundred and thirteen metres up there.”
They climbed up slowly, from one girder to the next. The distances between the girders were awkward, and the climb was slow and difficult. The only two who didn't have problems were Laodicean, whose effector fields snaked out gracefully and Mero, who made the climb into a series of easy acrobatic leaps. They went first, waiting occasionally for the others to catch up.
“Hear that, Cap?” said Mero.
Rurthk did. The engines were shifting pitch. “Everyone stop and hold on,” he said. “The ship's about to jump.”
The sound of the jump engines echoed through the space, then cut off suddenly. A moment later there was a sudden groaning as the bulkheads around them shifted under the tidal pressure. There was that familiar feeling of compression and then expansion, and then they were through.
When it was finished, Rurthk looked around. The bulkheads creaked a few times.
“No weapons fire,” he said. “Looks like they haven't caught the queen yet.”
He continued onwards, leading the group through the hidden space.
After they'd gone a little further, he looked over at the Glaber engineer. “Suth,” he said. “I'm going to need to you tell me when we're in the right place.”
Suth considered this, looking around the girders. “This way,” he said, pointing to the left.
Under his direction they headed sideways for several metres then up again. With Laodicean's effector fields supporting him, Suth leaned forward to a wall and ran his fingers over it.
“This is it,” he said. “The hatch.”
This was the difficult bit. They had to pass into an inhabited area.
“Right. I'll go first,” said Rurthk. “If someone does happen to walk past, its better they see a Glaber.” He summoned the Glaber soldier over. “Urru, you come after me.”
“Understood,” she grunted.
Rurthk climbed over the girders and leant forward to the hatch. With his torch on it, he could see the outline. It had a few faint scent tags. He leant forward from the girder.
“Here,” said Laodicean, extending an effector field.
“Thanks,” Rurthk said, resting an arm on it. He opened the hatch.
Light and a rush of scents flooded in. Something deep in his brain flicked on, and told him that this was an enemy hive, repulsive, worthless.
He shrugged the feeling off. He had a job to do. He pulled himself through the hatch and emerged into the corridor beyond.
It was empty. Tangles of vines hung from the ceiling, with clouds if insects floating about in their shadows.
Urru came in behind him, lips drawn back into a silent snarl, and looked around, rifle at the ready.
“Take a sample,” Rurthk reminded her, holding up the pheromone bottle and waving it about a little. Urru nodded and followed his lead.
The rest of the team came in.
“It's down this corridor,” Suth said, pointing.
When they had all sampled the air and covered themselves with Hive Knife pheromones, they moved cautiously down the corridor. It was only a short distance to go before they could hide in the ship's interior spaces again. If they could get there without being seen, they would be fine.
A Glaber from Hive Knife rounded the corner. The moment he saw them, he leapt back, snarling, and went for his gun.
“Oh, for,” hissed Rurthk, aiming his rifle. “Don't!” he said.
The Glaber froze, seeing he was outnumbered and outgunned. “Intruders,” he said. “You'll die. We will take you apart to find who sent you. And then they will die too.”
“In that order?” said Rurthk. “Because believe me, it's not easy to torture the dead –”
A shot rang out, and the Glaber went down. Three more shots in quick succession ensured he stayed down.
Urru lowered his weapon.
“I think I like this girl,” said Mero. He swept forward and held out his pheromone bottle. “This guy was high-ranking, right?”
Rurthk looked at Urru. “That was foolish,” he said. “If anyone's heard that.”
“He could have activated an alarm,” Urru said.
Suth was waving his fingers through the bristled input of a console nearby. “He already has,” he said, looking around. “They know we're onboard.”
“Wonderful,” growled Rurthk. “Just once I'd like to sneak in somewhere and not get immediately noticed. Hurry!”
They ran down the corridor, guns ready. There was another hatch in the wall with a console beside it.
“Suth, Mero, quickly!” snapped Rurthk.
They worked together, with Suth at the console and Mero with his tablet attached, running one of Yilva's hacking programs.
Rurthk raised his gun. He could hear Glaber growling to each other in the distance, then footsteps approaching.
The hatch swung open.
“Inside, now!” whispered Rurthk.
The team climbed through. Rurthk hung back until the end. The footsteps were approaching closer. He readied his gun. Eloise ducked through, leaving him along in the corridor, with a Glaber about to round the corner. He climbed through, trying to close the hatch as quietly as possible after him.
And then his foot slipped from under him and he fell.
He was in another dark cavity like the one they'd just come from. There was no floor: Crisscrossing girders went do
wn and down. They didn't provide much to hold on to. He grabbed at one as he began to fall, missed, and toppled over.
Someone grabbed his arm with a light yelp.
It was Olivia. She didn't manage to hold on for more than a second, but she stopped his fall for long enough for him to get his bearing and grab a structure on the wall in front of him.
Holding himself in place, he swung forward and braced his feet against another girder
“Thanks,” he said, looking up at her.
Olivia grinned back down at him and offered her hand again. He took it, and pulled himself back up to the level of the hatch.
They climbed as quickly as they could. It wouldn't take long for the Glaber to realise they were in the ship's inner spaces. For a while the space they were in became turned sharply to become horizontal. They ducked under and climbed over girders. They passed through a storage room, but no one saw them.
They came to a deal end: A smooth, solid carbide surface.
“This is it,” said Suth. “The inner armour.”
“At last,” growled Rurthk. “Can you see any way to access the automatic repair systems?”
Suth shone his torch around and sniffed. “I think … here,” he said, awkwardly clambering over the girders.
“Uh, Cap?” said Mero. “We're not alone.”
Rurthk strained his ears. He couldn't hear anything. But he trusted Mero. “We need to hurry, then,” he said. “Lights off, unless you need them, and stay quiet.”
Suth found an access point: A conduit, not a control panel. He peeled away the covering, and showed Mero where to connect his tablet. Then he cut his own light, plunging them into darkness. All they had was the faint glow of Laodicean's effector fields and the dim light of Mero's tablet, turned down as far as it would go.
As they worked, Rurthk heard a faint echo: A growl and the clang of someone moving in the girders. It was followed a few seconds later by the sound of a hatch opening. The Glaber were getting closer.
“The system's down.” Mero's whisper was barely audible. “It should be safe to cut through.”
Rurthk reached out and tapped Eloise on the shoulder. He saw her nod, and climb up to the carbide surface. He heard her get out the plasma cutter. Soon, a third source of light appeared in their midst: A plasma blade. Eloise moved it carefully, and it vanished into the armour above them.
Rurthk could hear the sounds below coming closer. Five or six Glaber, he guessed, moving quickly. They had probably trained to fight in this environment, and knew how to climb through the girders with ease. He took out a grenade.
“Attack when I say, and not a moment before,” he told Urru.
Urru, barely visible in the darkness, nodded silently, and took out her own grenade.
Lights appeared below them dancing about, cut apart by the mass of girders.
Don't notice us, Rurthk pleaded silently. There's nothing this way but impassable armour.
Lights shone again, this time directly at them. Then came gunfire.
“Damnit,” muttered Eloise. “Nearly through.”
Rurthk set the timer on his grenade, guessing the distance of the Glaber below them. He held it straight out where there were no girders in the way and dropped it.
“Attack,” he told Urru.
Urru dropped her own. Mero threw a grenade, bouncing it off a wall. It bounced between girders in a chaotic fashion. Olivia and Laodicean dropped their own grenades.
The first explosion lit up the figures below them. Rurthk fired his rifle. More explosions followed in quick success. He saw a body tumbling down.
Light appeared above him. It was Eloise, pushing aside the rectangular slab of inner armour she'd cut through. “Go!” said Rurthk, preparing another grenade. The sound of gunfire echoed up from below, and bullets sparked against the walls.
Rurthk dropped another grenade, then fired back while his team went through. At last, he sent a third grenade as his going-away present, and scrambled up and crawled through the hole in the armour.
The armour was three feet thick. Any more, and the plasma blade wouldn't have been able to get through it. While Rurthk was on the other side, Eloise had slathered a fast-setting resin from a small bottle onto the top and sides of the slab she'd cut out. She was just finishing up. As soon as Rurthk was through, she put the rest of the resin on the bottom of the hole. Then, together, they pushed the slab back into place. Within a minute, the resin would set and it would be all but immovable.
That would keep the inner section sealed, and it would prevent the Glaber from following them directly But word was out. They had to move quickly.
As Rurthk turned back, he saw Urru was limping. She stopped, prodded at the wound on her leg, and assured him, “It's not dangerous.”
Rurthk nodded. He would have like to do something about it, but there wasn't time.
“Which way to the environmental controls?” Rurthk asked Suth.
Suth pointed.
They ran down the corridor, with Rurthk at the front and Suth just behind him. The corridor was larger here. Rurthk could smell the cocktail of pheromones related to leadership. Part of him wanted to give in and obey. He ignored it.
As they turned a corner, gunfire rang out. Rurthk grabbed Suth and dragged him back into cover.
“Grenade, someone?” he asked. He was out.
“My pleasure,” Mero said with a laugh. He threw a grenade around the corner, then took one from Olivia and threw that too.
Two blasts in quick succession made the corridor flash orange. As soon as the second grenade went off, Rurthk leaned out and fired. Every Glaber in the facility would be coming for them now.
In the corridor, two Glaber were dead. Rurthk shot down another, and Mero leapt out and killed a fourth.
“Come on,” said Rurthk hurrying forward. The grenades had blown away the fungus chips from the floor and the vines from the wall.
“Environmental controls,” said Suth, stopping at a door down the corridor. He tried its access panel. The smart matter membrane of the door remained solid. “Let's see if I can …” he began.
“Or, we could just do this,” said Eloise, wielding the plasma cutter. The door was thin; it only took her a couple of seconds for her to cut through the membrane, and they were through.
The room beyond was large and irregularly shaped with a low, slightly curved ceiling. Bristly control panels covered part of the wall. Beside them were various organic-looking machines.
Suth looked around for a moment.
Behind them, Rurthk could here footsteps approaching. “Well?” he asked impatiently.
“Here,” said Suth, pointing.
Several grey pipes emerged from the ceiling, branching off and snaking into various machines. Suth ran over to one of them.
“Get your gas masks on,” Rurthk told them. “Suth, release the gas as soon as you can. Olivia, help him,” Rurthk said. “Everyone else –”
He was interrupted by a pair of Glaber who suddenly came sprinting through the door, firing at random. Mero mowed the first one down. Urru tackled the second, smacking his gun away and sinking her teeth into his neck.
“Yeah,” Rurthk said. “Do that.”
Chapter 44: Environmental Controls
Rurthk could hear more Glaber coming. “Grenades,” he said. “Let's keep them out of that corridor.”
Eloise one to the left, one to the right. Everyone ducked behind cover of the door. Explosions roared down the corridor. Laodicean extended his assault rifle out into the corridor and fired in both directions.
Meanwhile, Rurthk and Urru grabbed some of the moveable machines and dragged them over to the door to provide cover.
The Glaber threw back grenades of their own. One missed the hole in the door. The other bounced through.
“Take cover!” Rurthk shouted.
Everyone leapt behind their machines. At the last moment, Rurthk saw Suth and Olivia had no cover nearby. He was about to move when Laodicean positioned himself betwe
en them and the grenade. His globe of water changed shape to shield them.
The grenade went off. Laodicean's globe of water, combined with effector fields, absorbed the shrapnel and heat without hurting him. The shrapnel rained out the bottom of his globe and clattered lightly on the floor.
“Smart move,” Rurthk said. He glanced at the hole in the door. “Can you block it?”
“Not from bullets,” said Laodicean. “But grenades are slow enough for me to stop.” He glided over to the door and extended his effector fields into a sheet covering the hole.
While he was doing that, Eloise helped move one of the machines to cover Suth and Olivia while they worked.
Outside, gunfire roared. Rurthk and his team took cover and fired back. A grenade bounced off the effector field from the outside and exploded. After that, the Glaber seemed to stick with guns.
Then there was a pause. Rurthk readied his assault rifle. That wasn't good.
Something rumbled down the corridor outside.
Mero was taking cover to the side, where he could look through the hole down the corridor. He was the first to see it. “They're setting something up,” he said.
“Details would be helpful,” said Rurthk.
“Looks like a small tank. Big guns, lots of armour.” Mero ducked back as the Glaber outside shot at him. He leaned out to again to return fire.
Rurthk grimaced. That didn't sound good. The Glaber could clear out the entire room with something like that. “Any grenades left?” he said.
“Here,” said Olivia. She leaned out from cover and rolled them over to Rurthk.
“I've got one,” said Eloise.
Rurthk activated two of the grenades. “Laodicean, take your shield down,” he said.
The shield vanished. Rurthk threw two of the grenades, bounding them down the corridor. There was shouts just before they went off, one after the other. While he prepared the next one, Eloise threw hers. Rurthk waited for it to go off before throwing the last.