by Sara King
“No!” Tatiana cried, as the ganshi spun to leave them there. “We don’t know where we are! You have to help us get out!” She reached out to grab the creature’s tail—only to have the bristly, spine-like fur tear at her hand like a shark’s skin. As she was recoiling from that, the big ganshi spun, slammed a paw into her chest, and pinned her to the gooey floor. Nicotine-brown liquid began dripping onto her face from above, smelling strongly metallic.
If you survive this, the ganshi said, then you’ve given me proof. Until then… The cat bent down and snagged the dragonfly katana and its sheath from the floor. …you don’t deserve this. Then it spun and bounded away, running much, much too fast.
“Follow them!” Tatiana cried. “They know the way out!”
Milar scrabbled to pick up his gear, but the pawprints in the goo were already fading, gelling back together into a slick brown liquid sheen.
“Drop the stuff!” Tatiana screamed. “Gogogogo!”
Milar snagged up his precious Laserats anyway, then, stuffing them into the waistband of his trousers, left the rest of his guns and survival supplies in the gel and ran. Tatiana was right on his heels, heading for the barely-visible pawprints in the goo, when a frightened mental yowl behind her brought her to a stumbling halt.
Mom!
Tatiana turned.
“Come on!” Milar cried, grabbing her by the wrist and confiscating her permaflare to light up the corridor in front of them. “The prints are fading! Let’s go!” He started dragging her.
Mom! the sob was full of growing terror. Why are the walls dripping, Mom? Why’s it dark? Where is everyone?
Tatiana was dragging her feet, the colonist even then pulling her out of range of the kitten’s cries. “Stop!” she cried, yanking them to a halt.
Milar grumbled something about slow-assed women under his breath and bent down to throw her over his meaty shoulder.
Tatiana grabbed him by the shirt collar and yanked him down to eye-level. “There’s a jaggle kitten back there. He’s scared, Miles. He’s gonna die.”
Milar gave her a look like he was gonna punch her again.
Tatiana yanked the permaflare out of his hand and spun to light up the corridor behind them. Big swaths of the tunnel were beginning to slide, like rotting meat sloughing from bone.
Mom! the kitten screamed.
Tatiana started running. Behind her, Milar grabbed at her anyway, but Tatiana kicked him in the shin and kept going. “Where are you, little guy?!” she called.
The kitten was silent for a moment, suspicion permeating the entire area. Then a shuddering groan shook the very floor underneath them and the air in the corridor blasted them with a rush of air as one of the tunnels collapsed deeper in the mountain. Here! the kitten cried. I’m stuck…please help!
Tatiana found the striped gray jaggle kitten in the next honeycombed corridor, where he’d apparently been spying on them from the adjoining room, rather than retreating as he had been bid by his mother. He was floundering in the knee-deep gel, unable to gain enough purchase to run. As Tatiana approached, a piece of the liquefying wall sloughed free, sliding over the kitten and pinning him to the floor. Tatiana lunged down, pulled the baby jaggle from under the mass of brown jelly, and hugged the sputtering kitten to her chest. The jaggle, in turn, burrowed under her arm, clinging to her in obvious terror.
“Great!” Milar snapped, yanking the permaflare from her. “You killed us both for a ganshi cub. Fuck! Let’s go!” He grabbed her by the hand and started tugging her back toward the place where the ganshi had disappeared. As soon as they reached it, they both slowed, a look of horror on Milar’s face. In the time they had taken to grab the kitten, the tunnel leading to the surface had collapsed, blocking their escape.
Nonetheless, the big collie wasn’t finished. “Come on!” He grabbed her by the hand and started out another one of the honeycomb’s tunnels, an exit that hadn’t yet succumbed. He was tugging her through the knee-deep slime when another roaring blast of air from far below almost shoved them over. Catching himself on the wall, Milar shouted above the groans and rumbles of the ship, “How deep are we? How far down?”
“Encephalon said—” Tatiana did some quick mental math, “—like half a mile!”
“Half a mile?!” Milar cried. “That’ll take us five minutes!”
“Straight down!” Tatiana shouted back. “No idea how far that is in hallway distance. The downward slant’s only like a degree or two!”
Milar stumbled and slowed. He glanced back at her, and in that moment, Tatiana saw resignation. A moment later, the path in front of them collapsed, spraying slime everywhere. He slumped down against the wall.
Where’s my mom? the kitten asked in a whimper, a flash of terrified images of loneliness ending with striped maternal cuddles.
That made Tatiana angry. “Hey!” she shouted. “Hey!” She ran to the collapsed tunnel, ignoring the metallic brown slime dripping down on her from the next segment preparing to slough loose. “Your kitten’s in here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help us!”
Beside her, Milar winced. “Hey, sweetie. If we’re gonna die, think you could tone down the mental static? I think you’re trying to give me the Wide.”
Tatiana ignored him. “Help us!” she screamed, putting as much oomph into her thought as possible. “We’re trapped with your kitten, help us!”
Nothing. She might as well have been shouting at a brick wall.
More pieces of the ceiling were falling loose, slapping her painfully as they hit her in gelatinous brown chunks. Feeling the rumble of an impending collapse, Tatiana made one last-ditch attempt to get the mother cat’s attention, more out of fury that she’d leave her kitten behind than any expectation of retrieval. “Help. Us. You. Stupid. Bitch!”
Nothing.
Feeling the floor rumbling all around her, Tatiana kicked the wall in frustration and slumped down the side of the tunnel. Across the corridor from her, Miles was staring at the floor, looking defeated. And, Tatiana realized, there was absolutely no way she was getting out of there.
No, screw that! She’d seen her picture in the future. She had to survive.
Tatiana lunged back to her feet and handed Milar the kitten. “Hold him!” she shouted. Then, putting both hands on the slimy ship walls, she closed her eyes, concentrated as hard as she could, and shouted, “HELP US, BITCH!”
“Dammit, Tat!” Milar shouted, doubling over and holding his head. “You trying to kill me early?! Seriously, she’s not coming ba—”
This is the heartship Wandering Spirit, a brisk voice blared to her. We’ve located your Seal, archon. Unfortunately, transport to this ship has been banned due to Phage quarantine. Please advise.
“Take us to the surface!” Tatiana screamed. “Hurry!”
There was a slight hesitation. Us?
“Three of us!” Tatiana cried. “Me, the beefcake, and the kitten!” At her words, Milar cocked his head and stood up slowly, frowning.
The ship hesitated. We can transport you, Archon, but it is against the Containment Accords to transport non-Aashaanti within a quarantine zone.
“Fuck the quarantine zone!” Tatiana howled. “The Phage is dead! Transport us! Now!” The walls were already collapsing. Almost in slow motion, she saw the roof above them cave in, the millions of pounds of debris above them crushing their tunnel like an ammo can under a soldier’s foot. Milar threw himself at her, shoving an arm upward against the falling rubble, almost as if he planned to ward off a billion pounds of rock and dirt with his forearm. Distantly, Tatiana got all warm and fuzzy seeing it, then the landslide hit them in an overpowering crush, breaking bones and flattening her colonist and the kitten to her chest under a roaring mountain of falling rock.
Technically, the Containment Accords expired 1,202 molt-cycles ago, but you still probably shouldn’t tell anyone We did this. We are already under probation for rules-breaking.
Immediately with that ringing thought shattering through her
void of consciousness, Tatiana felt the stomach-flipping sensation of Aashaanti transport, then stumbled as she fell the remaining five inches to the ground. When she righted herself, Tatiana found herself standing at the now-collapsed entrance to the massive Aashaanti hiveship. Beside her, Milar grunted and fell to his knees, the jaggle kitten still cradled in his arms. Golden eyes wide, he gave her a look of total male amazement. Tatiana immediately decided she would capitalize on that later, once they were alone.
Collected around the entrance to the now-collapsed tunnel were a gathering of six panting adult jaggles and two wide-eyed cubs, their matted fur covered in sticky brown slime. They were hanging their heads in exhaustion, looking at the caved-in opening. The striped one was howling, slashing silver claws at the gooey gel and rock that was barring her path deeper into the mountainside, throwing huge swaths of it aside as sparks flew from her swipes.
Mom! the kitten in Milar’s arms cried. It squirmed free and bounded up to the adult jaggles, flinging itself at its mother’s front leg. The walls fell on us, Mom! It crushed us, Mom! It curled around its mother’s big front paw.
Keeton! The mother jaggle spun and pulled her son close, wrapping both paws around him in a kitty approximation of a desperate hug. Oh, Keeton, I thought I’d lost you…
They saved me, Mom! the kitten cried. The Triton and her human slave saved me!
Very slowly, the big jaggle’s head lifted, seeming to see Tatiana and Milar for the first time. The agony in the mother jaggle’s eyes didn’t need translation—she’d lost kittens to the collapse. Kittens and comrades.
How? the mother ganshi managed. How do you stand here?
Tatiana considered saying something cocky, then remembered the Nine Rules of the OBRC—and how the big kitten in front of her was throwing sparks with its claws. Clearing her throat to fight down the urge to snark, she carefully said, “There’s another ship buried under this one. It locked onto the Seal and saved us.” She held out the carved meteorite for the jaggle to see.
The big striped cat curled around her son. Take the sword and go.
Realizing she was partially responsible for their demise, Tatiana took a step forward. “Look, I’m sorry—”
The ganshi raised her head in a fanged roar. Go!
Tatiana thought about taking the time to grab the sword, then, daunted by the idea of approaching the mourning felines, just snagged Milar by his meaty wrist and started running. Apparently, the ganshi’s snarl needed no translation, because Milar swept her up onto his shoulder and started down the Tear at the speed of Yeti. He ran for an hour like that, until Tatiana was getting tired just from bouncing around.
“Someday,” Milar panted, when he finally put her down, “you’re going to tell me what the hell just happened.”
Realizing the colonist had been blacked out for a good majority of her experiences with the hiveship, Tatiana opened her mouth to explain.
“But right now,” Milar said, wrapping his big, callused hand around the back of her head and pulling her body tight against his rippling torso in a decidedly masculine gesture, “you’ve got other things to think about.” And, their hearts still pounding from fleeing a dying hiveship and thousand-pound genetically-engineered warbeasts, Milar ducked his head to meet her lips, and Tatiana immediately forgot what it was she was going to say.
Halfway through the best kiss of her life, Milar groaned and stumbled, falling to one knee. “Shit,” he whispered.
Breathless, Tatiana frowned. “Shit?!”
The big collie was holding his head with a ham-sized fist. “Wow, I really don’t feel too good. Dizzy. Seeing double.” He glanced at her, and Tatiana’s heart stopped because his eyes had just a bit too much white showing…
The Wide.
Tatiana swallowed hard. “You just need some rest, okay?”
Milar shook himself like a predator trying to shake off a tranquilizer dart. “Yeah. You’re probably right. There’s lava tubes all along the Snake. We can find somewhere to bed down in there…”
A few hours later, Tatiana was sulking on a ridge outside a lava cave that Milar had found for them that night, thinking about how much she hated camping, how much she missed humanity, how creepy it would be if the Shriekers were actually Aashaanti, and how much it sucked that she had a habit of killing people with her mind, when she saw the jaggle baby seated a few feet away, watching her in the darkness.
Hello, the jaggle said.
Tatiana shrieked and crab-crawled backwards to get away from it.
Seemingly unperturbed by her antics, the jaggle kitten nudged something towards her along the ground. Swallowing, Tatiana glanced down to see a delicate dragonfly molded into a tovlar sheath.
Mom said to give you this, the jaggle said. For saving me.
“The ship saved you, not me,” Tatiana said warily. She still remembered their last encounter vividly—and how well the little silver razors had sliced into her flesh. Without Encephalon to patch her up, she wasn’t willing to chance a repeat performance.
You saved me, the jaggle said. It looked around the cave. So is this where you and your slave are staying?
“No,” Tatiana said. “Milar’s just resting. He doesn’t feel too good. When he’s better, he said he’s finding us a higher spot. Somewhere that doesn’t stink like the Snake.” The hiveship’s jellied brown remains, when it had begun draining into the Snake’s tributaries, had reacted with the water to turn it an almost neon blue-green, several magnitudes brighter than the glacial colored waters that had flowed before. The smell had also increased exponentially, making the air caustic, burning at her nostrils with every breath.
You aren’t going home? the kitten asked. He scooched a little closer and idly began slicing little claw-marks in the volcanic rock beneath him.
“Can’t,” Tatiana said bitterly. “I was experimented on by a demonic child, so I’ve got this crappy tendency to kill people with my mind. I’m actually hoping Milar’s not dead—he was really dragging ass the last hour.”
The kitten cocked his head at Tatiana, then glanced into the cave at the sleeping body of her colonist. Your human slave’s name is Milar?
Tatiana allowed herself a little grin. “Why yes. Yes he is.”
The kitten grunted. Why do you have a slave? Mom says you’re not a Triton. They were the only ones who had slaves.
Tatiana chuckled. “Well, you see…”
Three hours later, when Milar groaned and dragged himself out of the cave, Tatiana was finishing up an explanation about how she had won Milar’s permanent indentured servitude by saving his life in a daring escape from bloodthirsty Nephyrs and trigger-happy Bouncer pilots, in which he screamed like a little girl the whole time and begged her to let him die.
Milar emerged from the cave with his beautiful amber eyes narrowed. “Pretty sure it didn’t go down like that.”
“Sure it did,” Tatiana said, dusting her hands off and jumping to her feet. “You feeling better?”
Milar gave a male grunt, then his eyes fixed on the kitten. “What’s that doing here?”
“Oh, he just wanted to know why you decided to be my man-slave,” Tatiana said, grinning.
Very slowly, Milar tore his gaze from the kitten and turned back to Tatiana. He didn’t say anything, just scowled.
“Aaaannnyway,” Tatiana said, “we should probably get going. Nice chatting with you, Babe.” It was short for Bad Ass Bio Engineered Cyborg-Killing War-Beast, something they’d come up with together because Tatiana thought Keeton was too stuffy a name for a cuddly, death-dealing munchkin, and B.A.B.E. was just easier to say than B.A.B.E.C.K.W.B., and Babe hadn’t liked the sound of ‘Babeck.’
Uh… Babe started to claw at the volcanic rock again. Mom said I could come with you.
Tatiana cocked her head at the kitten for several moments before squealing uncontrollably and spinning in a circle, pulling her fists to her chest in glee.
Milar must’ve guessed what had just transpired, because he immediately s
aid, “No. You’re not bringing him with us.”
Tatiana sobered immediately and turned to face her man-slave. “I saved you from Rath, when they were gonna skin you,” Tatiana said, ticking off a finger. “I saved you in the Tear, when you were being overwhelmed by sub-par operators and Bouncers,” she ticked another finger, “I saved you from the alien inviso-shredders when Nephyrs were gonna catch us,” she unfurled a final finger and wiggled it at him, “and I saved you from getting buried alive under a gajillion tons of gooey rubble. You owe me a jaggle.”
Milar grimaced. “You would bring that up.”
Your man-slave is a complainer, Babe noted.
Tatiana grinned. “He is, at that.” She grabbed Milar by the wrist. “Come, man-slave. I can’t wait to get some fresh air while you scour the Snake to acquire us supplies and a ship—oh, and some food and a set of nail clippers—as befits your man-slaverly duties.” She started sashaying up the hill towards sweet, sweet fresh air, but was brought up short by an immobile two hundred and twenty pound slab of muscle. Swallowing and cringing, she turned to look over her shoulder.
Milar was scowling at her.
Tatiana gave him a nervous grin. “Traumatic, surgery-induced brain injury?” When he didn’t reply to that, she winced and offered, “Maybe the fumes?”
He crossed his arms and started tapping his fingers against the red and black dragons wrapped around his big biceps.
Tatiana sighed deeply and turned to the striped jaggle. “Sorry. Milar wants me to tell you that he’s not really my man-slave.”
Milar grunted in satisfaction.
“…he’s my man-slut.”
Milar’s arms uncrossed with a growl. Seeing the look on the collie’s face, Tatiana shrieked out a giggle and ran.
CHAPTER 14: Ship with an Attitude