Brown, Eric

by Helix [v1. 0] [epub]

  A faint light spilled from the open door of the hangar. When she reached the threshold, she saw that an oil-lamp had been dropped on the floor and was guttering as the last of its fuel seeped across the concrete.

  The sight of it confirmed her worst fears. Could this be Ehrin’s lamp, taken from him on his arrest?

  She picked it up and proceeded into the hangar, the great shapes of the skyships casting mammoth shadows across the walls.

  She had no way of knowing if any of the dirigibles were missing, but the hangar doors at the far end of the chamber were closed. Surely, if he were fleeing, he would not have had time to shut them behind him?

  So perhaps he was still hiding in one of the dirigibles?

  But which one? The Expeditor? She crossed to it quickly and stepped through the hatch into the gondola’s lounge, which was empty. She hurried along the corridor, checking the cabins on the way. Finding nothing, she moved to the control room. “Ehrin,” she called under her breath. “Ehrin!”

  She left the Expeditor, holding the lantern high and casting her gaze around the dozen other stilled sky-ships. Her eyes alighted on the largest dirigible in the hangar, the scarlet freighter that had accompanied them across the ice plains. The door of its cargo hold, she saw with a start of joy, stood open a fraction.

  She ran towards it and slipped inside, then stopped. At the far end of the hold, she made out an effulgent golden craft like a stylised teardrop. She moved towards it slowly, the light of her lamp playing across its surface.

  It was unlike the gondolas that belonged to the other skyships, but what else could it be? Perhaps another of Ehrin and Kahran’s inventions, a secret prototype?

  She walked around the ship, searching for some kind of hatch. She found a triangular viewscreen on one flank, but it was black and impossible to see through. She paused, then raised her fist and knocked on the glass. “Ehrin, are you in there? Ehrin, it’s me, Sereth!”

  She waited, her heart thumping. How she wanted Ehrin in her arms now. How she wanted his reassurance that all would be well...

  A noise made her jump. Something mechanical sighed, back along the flank of the vessel. She turned and saw a section of its golden panelling ease out and upwards. She started forward. “Ehrin, y ou don’t know how—” she began, then screamed.

  Something was standing in the entrance to the golden ship, staring out at her.

  Before she could unfreeze herself and command her limbs to move, the creature darted for her and grabbed her upper arms. Its grip was painful and, as much as she struggled, she was unable to free herself.

  The creature pushed its face close to Sereth’s, and she almost passed out. Its visage was beyond ugly— it seemed malformed, crumpled and hairless and blackened, as if it had suffered some terrible injury.

  “You know Ehrin?” it said, its accent grating.

  She screamed, “What have you done to him?”

  “I have done nothing.” Its snout was horribly flattened, its nose smeared halfway across its face. It breathed noisily. “He was taken, with Kahran.”

  “Taken?” was all she could say.

  “I saw them arrest him and Kahran, drag them outside. I need to know where they were taken.”

  “Why? What do you want with—”

  It shook her, silencing her questions. “You are a friend of Ehrin?” it asked.

  “A friend? I’m his fiancée! We—”

  “A female?”

  She grunted. “What do you think?”

  The monster blinked. “I’m sorry, but I think you all look alike to me.”

  She realised that she was still grasping the tool she had picked up in the factory.

  The creature had relaxed its grip on her. Quickly, without thinking, she raised her hand and swung the chisel with all her might.

  Gasping, she stared at what she had done. The handle of the chisel emerged from the alien’s chest and blood trickled from the wound and down its silver suit.

  The monster’s reaction startled her. She had expected it to fall, or even to attack her. It did neither, but instead grimaced at her. With its free hand, it plucked the chisel from its chest as if it were nothing but an insect-sting.

  It cast aside the chisel and gripped her even tighter. “Listen to me!” it said as if the attack had not occurred. “Ehrin, Kahran and I are working together. We are friends. You have nothing to fear from me. I need to find out where Ehrin and Kahran are being kept. Then, with luck, I can free them.”

  “Free them?” she shook her head. “But they’ll be freed in days...” She stopped herself. So Velkor Cannak was right. Ehrin and Kahran were in league with the aliens, some of whom had been captured. In which case, the Church was unlikely to free Ehrin and Kahran within days.

  The alien said, “I need Kahran now. It is vital to my plans that I free them. Do you know where they are being held?”

  She wanted to cry. She was shaking with fear and she realised, with a hot flush of embarrassment, that she had lost control of her bladder. The fur on the inside of her legs was hot with urine.

  She wept. “In the central penitentiary.” She recalled what her father had told her. “In the western tower. It’s the most secure block there is.”

  The alien monstrosity blinked at her. “You are telling the truth?”

  Something battled within her. She loved Ehrin, that she could not deny; but was her love for him sufficient to accept his alliance with these monstrous forces?

  She wept as she said, “Of course I’m telling the truth! Don’t you think I want Ehrin free as much as you do?”

  The creature bared its oversized teeth in a horrible snarl, then dragged Sereth into the gloom of the golden ship. It pushed her along a narrow corridor, into a small triangular room fitted with two horizontal couches and other black accoutrements.

  The alien forced her into one of the couches, then strapped her in so that she was unable to move. It pulled something from the silver suit that clothed its body, and held it out to her. In the gloom she could only make out a dark plate.

  “Touch it!” the alien barked at her. “Now tell me, where are Ehrin and Kahran?”

  She touched the plate with trembling fingers and said, “In the Church penitentiary, the western tower.”

  “Do you know where it is from here? Can you direct me?”

  She wanted to laugh and try at the same time, and tell the creature that it would not get a dozen yards along the ice canal before some citizen alerted the authorities. “You can’t possibly go by foot!”

  “I said, can you direct me?”

  She nodded. “Yes, yes, of course. It’s—”

  “Not now,” the alien said. “Show me, okay?”

  She felt something lurch in her stomach. It wanted her to accompany it into the centre of the city...

  “We can’t go by foot. We’d be arrested—”

  The creature gave a loud grunt and flung itself into the opposite couch. It strapped itself in with one hand, and with the other reached up and tapped something above its head.

  Sereth screamed. The ship was moving, rising from the floor of the freighter’s cargo hold and turning slowly on its axis. Sereth raised her head, peered along the length of her body to a long, narrow viewscreen beyond her feet. She saw the inside of the hold swing dizzily. The golden ship was approaching the doors, hovering a matter of yards above the floor. As she watched, it came to the doors, nudged them open and passed through.

  The alien grunted, pulled a black frame from the ceiling and entwined its arms about it. “Put your head down, girl. Hold on tight.”

  The ship lurched. Sereth screamed. Despite his command, she raised her head and stared through the viewscreen. They were approaching the wall of the hangar at speed. “No!”

  The nose of the ship hit the wall and it crumbled outwards, falling bricks striking its carapace with deafening blows. Seconds later the ship passed through the foundry wall and hovered a yard above the ice canal amid a cloud of settling dust, its sud
den emergence creating panic along the ice canal. Sereth saw people scatter in fright, and spooked zeer rear up and bolt away down the canal.

  “Now,” said the alien, “which way?”

  Sereth pointed south, and instantly she was thrust back on the couch. She screamed in fear as the ship accelerated and shot up and over the rooftops of the city with impossible speed.

  * * * *

  4

  Kaluchek stared in amazement as Carrelli stepped forward, gripped the bars and spoke to the rats.

  She had always thought that there was something different about the Italian medic. Carrelli had seemed to stand apart from the rest of the group, coolly observing without comment; she’d known things in certain situations that she had no right to know. Kaluchek had put it down to the fact that she was the only survivor of the original maintenance team, and had received extra training, but that didn’t account for her intuitive assumptions that had always proved correct... and now this. This changed things, though Kaluchek couldn’t work out quite how things were different, now.

  It was an odd and unsettling experience, watching the Italian-speaking rat. She had always spoken a quiet, attractively accented form of English, never raising her voice. Now, as if forced by the language itself, she leaned forward and almost retched up a series of strangulated barks, high pitched and imperative.

  Kaluchek looked quickly at Joe, who was open-mouthed in amazement at the Italian’s performance. Across the cell, Olembe was pop-eyed with surprise.

  The rats appeared equally taken aback. The small alien in the colourful tunic dropped into a crouch, staring at Carrelli with large eyes, snout open to reveal a set of white, needle-sharp fangs. Behind it, the red-robed alien stepped back into the doorway.

  Carrelli ceased her linguistic contortions and paused, as if awaiting a reply. Cautiously the small alien took a step forward and snapped out a quick yelp.

  Carrelli replied in kind, and the rat launched into a volley of yips and barks.

  It was interrupted by the robed alien, who yelped at the smaller rat, and then turned and addressed the astonished guards. The latter sprang forward and clutched the small rat by its short arms, almost lifting it off the ground.

  The robed rat stepped forward, dropping into a crouch and sidling into the corridor, appraising Carrelli slantwise from massive, dark eyes.

  It barked, and Carrelli replied.

  The small alien, gripped by the guards, screwed itself round to face the robed rat, and spat a series of high-pitched barks.

  Carrelli turned to her fellow captives and smiled. “I’ve made it clear that we come in peace, and are no threat to them or their way of life. But I get the impression that our very presence here, the fact of our existence, has upset things in some way.”

  “How the hell—?” Olembe began.

  “Not now,” Carrelli said. “I think our arrival has stirred up some kind of social unrest. Jacob here seems open to the fact of our arrival, while Red Robe is violently opposed.”

  Joe said, “It’s called Jacob?”

  Carrelli smiled. “That’s what I call it. The coat it’s wearing,” she explained.

  Before she could go on, the small alien—Jacob, Kaluchek thought—barked at Carrelli, who nodded and replied at length.

  Whatever she said had the effect of incensing Red Robe, who sprang forward and almost lashed out at her through the bars in rage, literally spitting in anger.

  Without turning, Carrelli said, “It’s calling us... devils, phantoms... at any rate, evil creatures that do not exist—”

  Olembe cut in, “What matters, Carrelli, is who’s running the show here? Natty dresser or red riding hood?”

  “Who do you think, Friday?”

  “Christ, I knew it. You’ve really landed us in the shit now, Carrelli.”

  She turned and stared at him. “There was absolutely nothing I could have done to appease those in power, Friday, okay?”

  He just shook his head. “So what do they do with devils on this ice ball?” he sneered. “Burn them at the stake?”

  Kaluchek pressed herself closer to Joe and clutched his hand, fear turning her stomach. She wished Olembe would just shut it, let Carrelli do the talking.

  Carrelli turned to Red Robe and barked.

  The rat stepped forward, inserting its dripping muzzle through the bars, and snarled at her. Its obvious anger gave Kaluchek the creeps.

  “What the hell is it saying, Carrelli?” Olembe asked.

  Carrelli just shook her head, but from Kaluchek’s position she could see the expression of shock on the medic’s face.

  Jacob yelped something, a single exclamation, and began a series of bucking contortions in a bid to free itself from the grip of the guards. They held on tight, and Red Robe barked a command, at which the guards hauled the struggling alien towards the outer door.

  “What did they say?” Olembe demanded.

  Carrelli turned to him. “Red Robe threatened us with death, torture on some kind of frame...”

  “Jesus!” Olembe cried.

  Kaluchek felt suddenly sick. Joe gripped her hand and held on tight, then drew her to him.

  Seconds later a muffled explosion rocked the very foundations of the jail. Kaluchek and Joe, seated on the floor, fell suddenly to their left. Carrelli, standing beside the bars, staggered like someone in an earthquake and fell to her knees. The rats in the corridor tipped into a struggling heap, yelping and barking as one.

  Seconds later Kaluchek heard a second blast, sharper though not as earth-shaking. Alien cries came from beyond the corridor door, followed by a fusillade of what might have been rifle shots, echoing deafeningly in the confines of the building. The guards released Jacob and pulled weapons from their belts, short antique-looking pistols. They slipped through the door, almost slinking like the animals they resembled, and moments later Kaluchek heard screams as one rat fell in a spume of dark blood. Jacob leapt at the bars and clung on while Red Robe, cowering in the corner of the corridor, appeared to be gabbling prayers to itself.

  Then the corridor wall disintegrated in a shower of pulverised stone and choking dust. When the dust cleared, Kaluchek stared at what was revealed.

  In the settling silence, a tall creature—an alien unlike the others—appeared in the gaping rent where the wall had been. Beside it, tiny by comparison, was another rat-like being. As she watched, the rat sprang over the rubble and ran towards Jacob; she thought at first it was attacking him, then realised her mistake. The new alien was touching Jacob with solicitous paws, their snouts meeting and rubbing with what might have been affection.

  Then the giant strode over the rubble in a single step, crouching to fit itself into the confines of what had been the corridor, and yelped at Jacob. The small alien looked up and replied.

  Kaluchek was surprised by the giant’s reaction: it bellowed, hitting out to strike the bars with a balled fist. It addressed Jacob again.

  Jacob keened—that was the only word for it, Kaluchek thought. It flung back its head and howled into the air.

  The giant barked, dragging Jacob from the bars and towards the rubble. Jacob cried out, gesturing back towards the imprisoned humans. The giant stopped for a second, looked back at the four in the cell and seemed to be considering.

  Only later did it come to Kaluchek that things could have been very different if the giant had come to another decision.

  The giant stepped forward and barked something at Carrelli. She stepped back and the alien aimed a weapon at the bars. It fired, and a bar ignited and melted down its length like a candle. The gap was just wide enough for Carrelli to squeeze through, followed by Olembe, who had more difficulty. Kaluchek helped Joe to his feet, taking his weight and easing him across the cell and through the bars.

  The giant, its duty to Jacob discharged, hurried from the corridor.

  Ahead, on the piled rubble, Jacob turned and gestured for the humans to follow. Then it scrambled away, gripping the paw of its recently arrived friend.


  Carrelli led the way, stumbling over the rubble. The giant was ahead, firing its weapon through the ruins of what had been the jail. The rats returned fire, Kaluchek hearing the whining ping of ricocheting bullets striking off masonry. In the distance she made out the bobbing heads of the militia as they appeared above the debris and took aim.

  The giant grabbed Jacob again, shook it and yelped. By way of a reply, Jacob pointed down a corridor still intact. The giant barged its way through the opening, followed by the others. Seconds later it came to a cell, blasted open the door and stooped to enter.