“You sure we can get everyone else on the other platforms?” Loren asked.
“It’ll be tight,” Dronzen admitted. “But we’ll manage.”
Mech stooped and studied a series of ports on the loading platform’s front end. “I think I can interface with these things. Maybe give them a speed boost.”
“Interface?” said Cal. “Do you mean have sex with them?”
“What? No, shizznod!” Mech barked.
“OK, just checking,” Cal smirked. “I mean, each to their own, but now probably isn’t the right time.”
“Shut up, man. And get going before they start getting suspicious and send more folks out here to investigate.”
“Good point, well made,” said Cal. “Make sure everyone’s ready to fight, and wait for the signal.”
“Good luck,” said Dronzen.
Cal tapped his forehead in salute, then Mech and Dronzen heaved on the ropes that opened the outer door, and Loren steered the platform outside, crashing into the gates just twice.
“Don’t say anything!” she warned.
“What?” said Miz, feigning innocence. “I wasn’t going to say a thing.”
After what should have been a three-point turn, but which instead took well over a dozen movements to complete, Loren aimed the platform towards the enormous hulk of the AX11 and sent it gliding across the sand.
“What’s with all those metal boxes?” Miz asked, as they whizzed by a few feet from one.
“They’ve got wasps in them,” Cal said, gazing ahead at Vajazzle’s ship. “Triggered by pressure pads beneath the sand, Mech thinks.”
“Ew. Is that what happened to that guy?” said Miz, as the platform passed the lumpy, misshapen remains of what had once been a man.
“Apparently so,” said Cal. He looked back over his shoulder at Ajan, who was still lying curled up on the floor, clutching his now comparatively balloon-like testicles. “Hey, Ajan. What’s the best way for us to get inside that thing?”
“Uh, everyone will be at the pit, so I’d g-go wide to the left,” he wheezed. “There’s a lot of damage to the lower decks there. You can get in that way.”
“How are we going to find Splurt?” Loren asked, raising her voice to be heard over the whistling wind and the low hum of the platform.
Cal considered telling them. He really did. He came very close to it, in fact, but whether it was because he didn’t want the others knowing what Splurt had become, or because he wasn’t ready to face the truth yet himself, he didn’t.
“We’ll find him,” he said, and he left it at that.
The closer they got to the ship, the more ridiculously huge it looked. It was practically the size of a city, several miles wide and with upper decks that stretched into the clouds like skyscrapers. There had been thousands of crew aboard – tens of thousands, maybe. And now there were what? Fifty or sixty on each side? Two hundred at most. Even though they were the bad guys, it still felt like a bit of a waste.
As they drew closer to the pits, Miz’s ears pricked up. “There’s a lot of people gathering over that way,” she said, pointing off to her right.
“Well, Ajan, looks like you were telling the truth,” said Cal. “I knew you could be a team player if you wanted to be. Good for you!”
Loren steered the platform to the left. Cal held his breath as she came within a foot of bumping against one of the boxes, but she slowed down until they were safely past, then twisted the throttle grip and sped them up again.
From a distance, the ship had looked in pretty good shape. Half-buried in the sand, obviously, but otherwise not bad. From this angle, though, the damage was obvious. Entire decks had been compacted into the ground, collapsing like a concertina beneath the ship’s immense weight. There was one enormous hole that stretched over several floors, the edges scorched and blackened like the rooms and corridors beyond.
It looked dead, Cal thought. Like a once-noble elephant now reduced to an undignified heap of nothing by a hunter’s rifle. Only, you know, a spaceship.
“Looks like we can get in through there,” said Loren. “Hard to tell from here, but that looks like one of the lower science decks.”
Cal shot Ajan a questioning look. He nodded.
“Which means… wow. It lost a lot of decks when it crashed,” said Loren. Even over the wind and engine drone, Cal heard her gasp. “The prison decks were below science. Splurt would’ve been on one of those.”
“He wasn’t,” said Cal.
He felt Loren’s frown without looking. “How do you know?”
“I just… I just know,” he said. “Splurt’s alive. I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Loren, steering the platform towards a burned-out gap in the wall.
Mizette’s ears twitched again as they drew closer. Tilting her head, she sniffed the air.
“What is it?” asked Cal.
“Trouble,” said Miz. “They’re waiting. They’re waiting in there.”
Cal frowned, then he spun on the spot and made a dive for Ajan. The little man was clutching something to his chest, and Cal had to wrestle it from his fingers. He studied the little gadget, flipping it over in his hands. “What the Hell is this?”
“It’s a transmitter,” Loren said, twisting the throttle in the opposite direction and sending the platform into reverse. “A radio. He’s been broadcasting our conversation the whole way over here.”
Cal raised a fist. “You sneaky little--”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Ajan squealed, holding up his hands in protest. “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident!”
Grabbing him by the front of his faded uniform, Cal hoisted the squirming Ajan into the air. “You want to see an accident? Here’s one. You’re about to accidentally fall off this thing and be stung to death by angry wasps.”
Cal was just about to toss the traitor overboard when a shimmer of purple light lit-up the deck, and a familiar figure in a hooded robe teleported in. “Let him go,” Vajazzle instructed.
“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” Ajan hissed. “Thank you, m’lady. Thank you.” His little face turned from an expression of gratitude to one of rage. “You heard her. Let me go, you worthless piece of--”
Cal let him go. Ajan screamed as he plunged over the side and bounced on the ground. Immediately, shapes slithered beneath the sand.
“N--!” Ajan cried, but that was as far as he got before an enormous plant-like head erupted from beneath the dirt and devoured him in one snapping bite.
As it exploded upwards, the creature slammed into the platform, rocking it. Cal used the momentum to hurl himself at Vajazzle, shoulder lowered, teeth clenched.
“Get her!” he barked, then his muscles tightened and pain buzzed through his skeleton as Vajazzle hit him with the end of a shock-stick. He flopped to the deck, convulsing, and barely registered when Loren did the same.
Miz, meanwhile, was ensnared in a tangle of tentacles that had crawled from beneath Vajazzle’s robe. She struggled against their grip, trying to slash at them with her claws, but her arms were pinned and her mouth was clamped shut and she could do nothing but snarl and hiss.
The assassin’s shadow fell over Cal. He strained to look up, but his body didn’t appear to be paying his brain any attention whatsoever.
“In case it isn’t patently obvious by now, Mr Carver,” Vajazzle told him. Another of her tentacles crept from beneath her robe and stroked his cheek. “I’ve been expecting you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Of the three pits Cal had been tossed into over the past twenty-four hours, the one he had been tossed into most recently was by far the most impressive. It was deeper than the others – four times his height, maybe – with glassy smooth sides that were practically vertical.
The ground was made of a hard ash-gray rock, while the metal hatch set into the hole’s one continuous wall was much larger and more ominous than the others had been. He didn’t think there were any animals back on Earth that wouldn’t be able
to fit through that hatchway, although this was largely because he had always refused to accept the fact that whales weren’t fish.
Unlike the other pits, where spectators stood around and peered over the sides, raked seating had been custom-built all the way around the hole. Eighty or so people in Zertex uniforms watched from their seats, while a couple of dozen Grimmash grimaced down from a standing-room-only area at the front.
Behind the Grimmash was a grand, imposing chair with a high back, thick arm rests, and luxurious padding. It was a chair fit for a king. Or, in this case, a self-made queen.
“I blame you,” announced Vajazzle, standing in front of the chair, her robotic eye burning beneath her shadowy hood.
Cal glanced at Loren and Mizette. They both shrugged. “For what?” Cal asked.
“For this. For all this. For everything,” Vajazzle replied. “If it weren’t for you, we would never have been following the route we were on. We would never have warped into the vortex. We would never have been stranded here.”
“Yeah, but you’re not stuck here, are you?” said Cal. “You’ve got ships. You can leave any time you want.”
Vajazzle nodded slowly, then raised her eyes to the vortex. It sat like a scab on the purple-blue sky. “Do you know what’s through there, Mr Carver?”
“Home,” said Cal. “Well, maybe not home, exactly, but our galaxy, at least.”
“No, that’s what you think,” said Vajazzle. “You assume it leads back to where we came from. That’s a guess. I asked if you knew.”
Cal looked at the vortex and frowned. “Well, I mean, it’s a door, right? Doors go both ways.”
Vajazzle lowered herself into her seat. “Is it? You know that, do you? How do you know it isn’t one way? How do you know we wouldn’t be vaporized by it? Or that we wouldn’t come out somewhere truly terrible?”
“This place is pretty terrible,” Cal pointed out.
“It sustains life,” replied Vajazzle. “Next time, we may not be so lucky.”
A murmur of agreement went around the audience.
“You know what I think?” said Cal. “I think you want to stay here. I think you get a kick out of being emperor or queen or whatever you’re pretending to be. You’ve got no reason to think that hole up there doesn’t just take you right back to where you left. Back to these people’s homes. Their friends. Their families.”
“Perhaps. But I think friends and family are overrated,” said Vajazzle. There was a clanking from the hatch as something heavy approached the door. “Don’t you agree, Mr Carver?”
It was the inflection in her voice that told Cal what was coming next. That smug, superior-sounding edge to her words. Cal’s heart dropped in time with the hatch. He heard Loren gasp in shock at the sight of the hulking dinosaur-like creature that stomped through, each footstep trembling the ground.
“Oh no,” Cal whispered. “No, no, no.”
“Leave this thing to me,” Miz growled, launching herself at the monster Cal knew was Splurt.
“Miz, no!” Cal yelped, then he grimaced as a crunching backhand fist struck her across the jaw, smashing her against the wall. She dropped to the ground, tried to get up, then collapsed as her legs gave way beneath her.
Something swished past Cal’s ear. He and Loren both turned to find a spear sticking out of the ground behind them, the wooden shaft still vibrating from the impact.
“Perhaps that will help balance things up,” Vajazzle said.
Loren wrenched the spear from the ground and spun on the spot, forcing Cal to duck out of the weapon’s path. “Wait, Loren, don’t!” Cal protested, but it was too late. She made a lunge for the dino-Splurt, stabbing with the spear’s sharpened point.
Splurt grabbed for the weapon, but Loren was too fast. She yanked it back then drove it into the monster’s side, jamming the tip beneath one of the armored plates that covered his back.
But the dino-thing either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. He turned and the spear was yanked from Loren’s grasp. She made a lunge to grab it again, but Splurt carried on turning, his tail sweeping across the ground.
Loren jumped just in time to avoid the tail, but a fist clubbed her in the ribs, doubling her over. She landed awkwardly, her lungs rapidly filling with fire. Staggering, she grabbed for Cal, who caught her before she could hit the ground.
Through all this, the crowd above had cheered and clapped and stamped their feet, loving every minute. Only Vajazzle looked less than enthused by it.
“Don’t finish them too quickly. Take your time. Make them suffer,” she instructed. She jabbed a withered finger at Cal. “Him especially.”
Instinctively, Cal reached for a witty response – that perfect arrangement of words that would both mask his growing sense of terror and get right on Vajazzle’s nerves. He couldn’t find it, though. The words weren’t there.
“We have to kill that thing,” Loren wheezed.
“No, we can’t,” said Cal.
“There must be a way!” Loren insisted, unwrapping her arm from around Cal’s shoulder and taking her weight on her own two feet. “You go high, I’ll go low. Maybe if we both attack at the same time we can take him down.”
“No, that’s not what I mean!” Cal said. “We can’t kill him, because that’s--!”
“RAAAAAAAAAR!”
Mizette flew at the dino-thing, claws and teeth both bared. She slashed wildly. Once, twice, again, again, cutting grooves in its leathery-hide. Surprised, the monster stumbled and Loren raced to join the fight. Diving into a roll, she grabbed the shaft of the spear, twisting it deeper beneath the armor plating.
“Stop! Guys, leave him alone!” Cal shouted. “It’s Splurt!”
Miz and Loren both hesitated, just for a moment. It was long enough. Splurt lashed out, driving a granite-like fist into the side of Mizette’s head. As she fell, he turned, cracking Loren across the jaw with an open backhand slap that stung Cal’s skin from several feet away.
Cal stepped into the monster’s path, his hands raised in front of him. “Splurt. Buddy. You have to stop this,” he implored. “I don’t know what she’s done, but this isn’t you. This isn’t my little pal.”
Splurt’s dino-muzzle pulled up into a silent snarl, revealing some ludicrously large teeth. Cal flinched, fighting the urge to burst into tears and run away.
“Come back to me, buddy. You belong with us.”
An expectant hush had fallen over the crowd now. Loren and Miz were both back on their feet, but both were dazed, bloodied, and keeping their distance.
“Well, this is boring,” Vajazzle announced, and a ripple of laughter went through the crowd. “Kill them.”
At once, Splurt reared up to his full terrifying height. His hulking fists clenched and his yellow eyes blazed with fury. Cal thought about standing his ground, but to do so would be suicide. He jumped back just as Splurt brought both fists swinging down, missing Cal by inches.
The ground rumbled beneath them. At first, Cal thought it was another earthquake, but then part of the stadium seating exploded, spilling screaming Zertex troops into the pit.
Vajazzle was on her feet, leaping to safety just as a crackling bolt of energy detonated her throne. Hissing with rage, she vanished in a flash of purple sparkles, as a rain of spears fell across the seats around her.
Chaos spread through the crowd like head lice through a kindergarten. Some of the less panicky Zertex troops drew blasters and returned fire, but most of them ran for cover as another barrage of laser beams punched holes in the arena.
The metal hatch slammed closed. Cal turned away from the top of the pit and saw that Splurt and the Zertex men were gone. Miz and Loren were leaning on each other, each one holding the other up. “What’s happening?” Loren coughed, grimacing as pain poked at her ruined ribs. “Mech?”
“Got to be,” said Cal. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Mech! Down here!”
Another part of the stadium exploded, showering Cal in fragments of stone and wood.
He blinked through the dust cloud until he could make out a broad-chested figure standing at the edge of the pit.
“So much for sending a signal,” Mech grunted.
“We got a little distracted,” Cal said. A group of Grimmash raced behind Mech, chasing down two fleeing Zertex grunts. “Think maybe you could give us a hand up?”
“One minute,” said Mech. He clanked away. Cal heard blaster fire, then screams, then more clanking.
“How could that be Splurt?” Loren demanded. “And why didn’t you tell us?”
“I was going to,” said Cal.
Miz snorted. It hurt, but she didn’t let on.
“No, I was. I wanted to,” Cal insisted. “It’s just… I don’t know. I didn’t want to believe it myself.”
A coil of rope hit him on the head, braining him. “Ow!”
“Look out!” Mech called.
“Thanks for the fonking warning,” Cal hissed, rubbing his head. He looked up to see Mech standing at the edge of the pit, the other end of the rope wrapped around his outstretched arm. Cal gave the rope a couple of sharp tugs, then stepped aside and gestured for Loren and Miz to go first. “Can you make it? Can you climb?”
Loren nodded, just once. She brushed frostily past Cal, took hold of the rope, and began to climb using just her arms. Halfway to the top, the pain became too much and she was forced to use her legs for the rest of the climb.
Miz went next, scrambling up the rope in a matter of seconds, then springing off onto solid ground. If she was hurt – and she had to be – she wasn’t about to show it.
Cal grabbed the rope and began to heave himself up. It was trickier than it looked, and he spent the first few seconds just dangling from both hands and twirling gently. He stretched out a leg, trying to get a foot on the wall.
After a few more seconds of this, he managed to get a foothold. “Bingo!”
His foot slipped off again.
“Could you maybe just pull me up?” Cal asked. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”
Space Team: The Search for Splurt Page 15