by A A Warren
She froze in place… the ice beneath her was a spiderweb of cracks and fissures. A clear, white air bubble, several meters in diameter, hung suspended just beneath the surface.
“Go back,” Talon said in a quiet voice. “The ice… it’s too thin!”
Vaki grimaced as she struggled to shimmy backwards up the slope.
“It’s too slippery… I can’t—”
Another sharp crack echoed though the mouth of the cave.
Talon took a step towards her. He held out his hand.
“Here. I’ll pull you back up.”
Vaki reached up, glancing at him with wide, dark eyes. “I can’t… can’t reach…” She panted for breath as the struggled to move her body another inch up the slope. Her fingertips hung in the air, just out of his reach.
Talon took another step towards her, and crouched low. “Just a little further. You can—”
Another crack ran through the ice. With a loud crash, the ground shattered beneath them.
Talon and Vaki plunged through the air, surrounded by falling chunks of ice. They struck the sloped ground beneath them with a loud thud. Talon gasped as the impact punched the air from his lungs. He realized they were still moving… The slope beneath the frozen air pocket was even steeper, and they were sliding toward the interior of the cave at high speed.
Beams of sunlight from above pierced the dark interior, and Talon caught a quick glimpse of torn metal and dura-plas panels jutting out of the ice ahead.
Turning sideways, he slipped a curved blade from his harness. Gritting his teeth and grunting with exertion, he dug the cryocite-lined blade into the ground. The razor-sharp crystal edge was one of the sharpest cutting materials in the known universe. The weapon tore into the ice, and the friction against the blade’s surface slowed his rapid decent.
Vaki skidded ahead of him, spinning in circles on the steep, slippery ice. She slammed into a chunk of torn dura-plas, frozen halfway in the ice. Coughing, and gasping for breath, she staggered to her feet. Talon stood up, and made his way to her, moving with slow, deliberate steps across the ice.
He heard her tap the screen of her wrist unit, and a bright white beam shot out, lighting the interior of the cavern. She swept the beam above them, revealing a shimmering, intricate latticework of ice and snow hanging above them. A few dying beams of sunlight pierced the frozen roof of the cavern, but the shadows above grew darker and longer by the minute.
She took a deep breath as she gazed up at the sparkling display. Her breath misted the surrounding air.
“This place is huge,” she said, gasping. “It’s incredible!”
“You want to see something incredible?” Talon muttered. “Turn around.”
She spun around. Her beam of light danced across a mangled frame of metal, hundreds of meters long. A few blinking lights dotted the dented, crushed metal plates bolted to the frame. The wreckage stretched back into the darkness of the cave, disappearing into the shadows.
A series of letters and numbers marked one of the plates towering above them.
“CFW 88693,” she read out. Her voice echoed through the cavern, reverberating off the walls. “Talon… this is another ship, a Consortium vessel. We’re not the only ones to crash here!”
“I know. Look down,” he said.
Vaki glanced at the snow-swept floor of the cavern. She shrieked and leapt backwards, slipping on the ice.
An arm jutted out of the frozen ground, next to where she had just been standing. A torn, bloodstained uniform sleeve, crusted with ice and snow, ended just before the gnarled, withered flesh of the corpse’s hand. The splayed fingers were black and desiccated, shriveled from cold and frostbite.
Talon knelt down and tapped the limb with the flat of his blade. The knife clanged against the rock hard flesh.
“Frozen solid,” he said, glancing up at her. “Whoever this is, they’ve been here far longer than us. At least a few months, I’d wager.”
Vaki tapped her wrist display. A series of blue beams lanced out, spreading to cover a bar code stamped into the metal beneath the worn letters and numbers.
She glanced at the reading projected on her holo-display. “This wreckage belongs to the CFW Bukuchi. Part of the Zigra Clan’s fleet. Databanks list the ship as missing in action six months ago.”
Talon stepped closer to the mangled metal hull. “These bodies in the ice… this can’t be all the crew. Where is everyone?” He glanced around the cavern, peering into its shadowy depths, where the scintillating beams of dying sunlight could not reach.
Vaki did not answer. Instead, she popped open a panel on the side of the collapsed hull. She yanked out a cluster of wires, and twisted them together. Sparks flew from the open panel, and a few lights on the side of the wreckage pulsed with a feeble glow.
She dropped the wires and pressed one of the glowing buttons. A door in the hull's side shuddered, then slid halfway open. Its servos hummed and whined, unable to move the door any further along its ice-covered track.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” she said, glancing inside the mangled wreckage. “They aren’t here. We should take shelter from the cold before—”
She gasped. Talon spun around to face her. “What is it?”
Before she could answer, Talon heard pops and cracks in the ice surrounding them. The frozen arm he had examined before was moving, flailing around and pounding at the surface of the ice. Another hand clawed up and grabbed Vaki’s ankle.
More cracks echoed through the chilled air. A dozen more gnarled, claw-like hands and limbs burst up through the ice, dragging withered, decayed bodies up from the frozen depths.
Chapter Eight
Talon thumbed the activator switch of his plasma axe as he lunged toward the nearest crawling corpse. The fiery blade hummed to life. He slashed down, severing the head off the shambling creature. The dead thing’s frozen skull dropped to the ground and rolled across the ice. Then the headless corpse toppled over and ceased thrashing.
Talon narrowed his eyes… he spotted something moving on the shattered, frozen body. A long, sinewy thing clung to the corpse’s spine. It was a worm, or snake of some kind. Its thick, undulating flesh was pale white, and clear, chitinous plates ran along its back. Tufts of pale blue fur sprouted from the cracks between the segments. It dug into the corpses's flesh with row after row of tiny pincers running along its underside.
The strange creature was over a meter long, and its head was buried in the corpse’s neck. The long, segmented worm hung down the dead body’s back and dangled between its legs, almost like a tail.
“Orion’s blazing bow!” Talon gasped.
Vaki screamed, and he turned his attention to the arm grabbing her leg. It jerked her off her feet, sending her thudding into the ground. Her wince of pain turned to wide-eyed surprise, as the arm yanked her across the ice. The rest of the body burst up from the frozen ground, sending sparkling shards flying through the air.
Talon roared in fury and swung his glowing axe. The burning blade slashed through the arm, severing it at the elbow. Its fingers still writhed and clawed at her flesh. He knelt beside her, and pried the twitching limb off her ankle, then he yanked her to her feet. Behind them, one of the shambling corpses pulled itself free, and stood upon the ice.
As soon she regained steady footing, Vaki drew her pistol and opened fire. The undead creature’s head exploded into glowing shards of ice as her bolt struck. It fell forward onto its chest.
Talon whirled around. Six more of the frozen corpses staggered towards them. Their joints cracked and popped with every step, as the coating of ice surrounding their frozen bodies shattered. Bellowing a war cry, Talon charged at the horde. He swung his blazing axe, lopping the head of the nearest body. The frozen thing toppled over and struck the ice. He kept moving, ducking low and severing the legs off the next creature at the kneecaps.
One of the desiccated corpses, an elderly woman whose skull lay hidden beneath a tissue-thin layer of shriveled skin, stooped
over. The thing grabbed a piece of wreckage in its withered fingers. Then it stood up, wielding the shard like a club. It swung the makeshift weapon in a clumsy arc.
Talon spun around, blocking the withered corpse’s metal shard with an upward swing of his axe. Glowing specks of molten metal sizzled through the air, as the plasma blade cleaved through the corpse’s makeshift weapon. But before he could strike again, he stumbled, then fell to the hard, frozen ground.
He struck the ice with a loud thud. Gasping for breath, he spun around onto his back. The creature whose legs he had severed was still moving, wriggling across the ice. It had grabbed his feet, and pulled him off balance. The ice cracked again. Looking up, he saw the old woman’s corpse stagger closer to his head. He rolled to the side, as the thing stabbed down with the red-hot metal shard. The glowing fragment missed his head, and melted into the cavern floor. The walking corpse tugged at the weapon, struggling to free it from the ground.
A glowing bolt of energy struck its arm, blasting it off at the elbow. Vaki fired again, and the thing fell to its knees. A smoking, shattered stump of ice was all that remained of its head.
As it toppled over, Talon spotted another of the worm-like things, writhing along its back. It slithered backwards, pulling its conical snout from the dead, frozen flesh of the corpse. The worm reared up, and its mouth split into four segmented mandibles. Talon glimpsed its pink, fleshy innards, as it hissed and snarled. It snapped at the air, and slithered towards his head.
Grunting with exertion, Talon threw his body into a sitting position and slashed down with his axe, splitting the head of the corpse clawing at his ankles. He kicked the body aside as he leapt to his feet. The worm-thing skittered across the ice, its tiny legs clicking as it undulated towards him.
It reared up again and lunged closer, its razor sharp mandibles slashing at the air. Talon side-stepped and swung his axe low. The thing uttered a high-pitched shriek, as the blade severed it in two. A splash of pale blue liquid spattered the ice. The two severed halves of the creature writhed on the cold ground.
“What in blazes are these things?” Vaki screamed. Two more of the strange armored worms emerged from the shattered, frozen corpses and slithered towards her. She fired, but her twin shots ricocheted off the shimmering ice.
Talon ducked as the glowing bolts flew past his face. He swung his axe, removing the leg of another shambling corpse. It careened over and struck the ice. Talon slammed his boot into the thing’s side, rolling it over with a powerful kick. As he expected, one of the worm-like things writhed on its back, struggling to free itself from the frozen flesh.
He stamped down on the worm, crushing its mid-section under his heavy boot. Swinging his axe, he cleaved through both the worm and the frozen body. It shrieked as the burning blade tore through its flesh.
Vaki adjusted her aim and fired again. Two more shrieks echoed throughout the cave. Talon spun around, just in time to see a spatter of pale blue blood stain the ice as the two worms exploded.
Talon raced over to her. The shambling bodies all lay lifeless on the ground. One last creature slithered across the cavern floor towards them. Talon swung his axe back and forth, chipping at the ice with the fiery blade. The worm reared back and hissed. It skulked away, avoiding the heat from the blade. With a final shriek, the thing dove into the ice, burrowing deep into the frozen ground. Within seconds it was gone. The cavern was still and silent.
Vaki stared at the shattered limbs and broken bodies lying around them. “What is this place?” she whispered. “A planet where the dead walk?”
A loud beep rang out, and Vaki jumped, startled by the sound. Talon lay a hand on her shoulder. “It’s just the belts,” he said. “Wherever we are, we’d better scavenge this wreckage for power cells. Otherwise, we’ll soon join those—”
Suddenly, a thunderous roar filled the cavern, drowning out his words. His eyes darted up… he grabbed Vaki and pulled her aside, as a razor sharp icicle the size of a man plummeted down from the cavern’s roof. The ground shook and rumbled, and more fragments of ice tumbled down, pelting them like sharp, glittering hail.
A frozen shard cut Talon’s cheek, and he tasted blood trickling over his lips. Then, another sound rang out… A hideous, wailing shriek. It was the sound made by the death throes of the strange worms. Only this time it was louder… Much louder. The hideous screech sound echoed through the cavern, drowning out the rumbling of the falling ice.
A gaping chasm tore open the floor of the cave. The wreckage of the starship slid deeper into the shearing ice. Talon and Vaki leapt back, as the ground crumbled and fell away from the crevasse.
With an ear-piercing shriek, another worm-thing burst through the shattered ice and towered over them. This specimen was monstrous compared to the others. Its razor sharp mandibles were twice the size of a man, and burning saliva dripped from its open maw. The acidic liquid hissed and bubbled as it struck the ice below. The creature's segmented mouth spread wide. A mass of tentacle-like tongues shot out, flailing around a pulsing ring of curved fangs. The beast roared again, and Talon felt a blast of putrid air rush from the glistening orifice.
The thing's head tilted down, regarding them from several meters in the air. It heaved more of its body out of the ice, and another tremor shook the cavern. Talon glanced back at the dark chamber’s entrance… Even if they could climb back up the slippery frozen slope, an avalanche of ice and snow now blocked the exit.
They were trapped in the cavern with the monstrous, deadly creature.
Chapter Nine
Talon turned back to face the thing. He stepped in front of Vaki and powered up his axe. The woman rolled her eyes and breathed an exasperated sigh.
“You’re blocking my shot,” she snapped. She pushed him aside and aimed her pistol. The gun barked and whined in her hands, spitting a barrage of glowing energy towards the creature.
The tiny weapon’s pulse bolts bounced off the thing’s armored scales. It roared again, and slammed into the ice with a deafening crash. More cracks radiated from the point of impact. Vaki side-stepped over a narrow, misty chasm, as she adjusted her aim.
“You’re wasting your time,” Talon snarled. “You’d need a heavy canon to penetrate that thing’s hide!”
Vaki crouched low and adjusted her aim. “You think can do better with an axe?” she shouted.
The beast heaved across the ice towards them. Its writhing tongues darted over the cavern’s frozen floor, sending steaming trails of mist into the air. A pair of long appendages snaked towards Talon’s feet. Roaring in fury, he stomped down with his boot, pinning one of the blue fleshy tendrils on the ice. He slashed with his axe, cutting it in two.
Pale blue fluid spurted from the severed organ as it darted back into the thing’s maw. The four corners of the beast’s snout parted as it roared again, blasting Talon’s face with another gust of stinking air.
Vaki fired again. Two more bolts ricocheted off the giant worm’s armored hide.
“I’m telling you, you’re wasting ammo,” Talon shouted. "We have to—”
Vaki ignored him and took aim as the worm reared up in the air, preparing to crush them under its heaving bulk. She fired one more shot.
Suddenly, a massive column of energy erupted from the cavern floor. The worm screamed and writhed, a black shadow within the blinding beam of light. Talon sprinted towards Vaki. He tackled her and rolled backwards, as a section of the cavern floor collapsed. The crumbling sheets of ice plunged into the glowing maelstrom.
The energy beam reduced the giant worm to burning chunks of flesh. A cloud of glowing ashes swirled in the brilliant column of light. More ice broke and fell away from the cavern floor. Vaki and Talon scrambled for solid ground, but the ice was too slippery… their fingers clawed at the slick, frozen ground, as they slid towards the glowing beam of annihilation.
Talon powered down his axe and rolled onto his back. He dug the heels of his boots into the ice, sending a spray of frost into the air as he hal
ted his downward slide. Vaki skidded next to him, slipping closer to the edge of the glowing pit.
“Grab hold!” he cried out, extending the shaft of the axe as far as he could. Vaki's outstretched fingers grasped the end of the metal rod.
Talon pumped his legs back and forth, dragging them back up the sloping ramp of ice an inch at a time. “That was quite a shot!” he exclaimed as he pulled her closer.
“That wasn’t me, you bulaka!” she shouted.
With a crackling hiss, the beam vanished. All traces of the giant beast were gone, incinerated by the powerful stream of energy. A grinding, mechanical noise arose from the dark, smoking pit. Another tremor ran through the ice.
Talon scrambled up from the crumbling edge of the pit and hauled Vaki to her feet. "Now what?” he muttered. He hefted his axe, but before he could activate the blade, Vaki rested a slim hand on his shoulder.
"Wait,” she said. “This noise sounds different. Man-made. Like a vehicle or a ship."
More ice fell from above as the tremors increased. Talon saw blinking lights, moving closer in the darkness. A vast black object, even larger than the great worm, rumbled up from the gaping shaft of melted rock.
They took a few steps back, but the ground remained solid beneath their feet. A huge metal cylinder erupted from the pit. Thick rows of armor plating covered the vehicle, but the heavy slabs of metal were pitted and scarred. Scorch marks crisscrossed over the metal hull. Spinning rings of beam-emitters circled around the massive vehicle, spaced apart in ten meter increments.
“You’re right.” Talon glanced at Vaki. “Definitely man-made.”
The woman did not return his gaze. Her eyes locked onto the gigantic object piercing the rock and ice before them. "It’s an ore-slicer," she whispered. "They travel under a planet’s crust, breaking up mineral deposits for excavation. We must have stumbled into a mining colony.”