The Ne Shaazi’s upper body lived long enough to see its lower body fall to the floor. Its vision faded into blackness as the ceratosaur continued down the hall, hardly slowing at all. A small, gray Awaru bounded along behind it, chuckling merrily.
“Is there something wrong, Commander Pollard?” the Ne Shaazi soldier asked.
The Commander glared at Caleb with his one, glittering orange eye. Where the other eye should have been there was only an empty, raw-looking socket. Gruesome burn scars covered the left half of the mutant’s scaly face.
“It’s you...” Caleb muttered under his breath. Of all the ships for me to break into, he thought nervously.
The Commander cocked one brow in interest. The gesture was eerie over an empty eye-socket. He stepped closer to Caleb and Tess, looming over them.
“Have we met?” Pollard asked in a gravelly rumble.
Caleb stared silently up into the Commander’s hideous face. He focused on the one, gleaming orange eye and felt the now-familiar tingle of connection with the World Tree.
“I remember you,” he said calmly, trying not to flinch as the hybrid mutant leaned closer. “Do you remember me?”
The Commander’s remaining eye bulged in surprise as he felt the first pressure of Caleb’s mental attack. “The boy!” he hissed through clenched teeth. He returned Caleb’s stare, circling around him and summoning his own mental energies to repel the attack.
“You’ve made a terrible mistake, boy,” he growled. Caleb felt the pressure point of psychic energy intensify, pushing back toward his own mind. “I’ve learned a few more tricks since last we met.”
Caleb felt his muscles begin to clench involuntarily as he pushed back against the Commander’s mental presence.
“You’ve already lost, boy,” he rumbled. “My mind is stronger than yours. You’ll become another tool, just like your friends.”
Caleb held the psychic attack at bay, but his body was feeling the strain. Sweat poured down his face and his legs began shaking.
“Besides,” Pollard continued, “even if you could win this fight, you could never escape this ship alive. There are hundreds of soldiers under my command. Can you fight them all?”
“Not alone,” Caleb wheezed, trying to keep his voice steady. “But I have my friends to help me.”
“Your friends!” Pollard boomed. “Your ‘friends’ are mine!”
Caleb felt Pollard’s attack begin to press into his mind, clouding his thoughts and dulling his concentration. He was shaking terribly, barely able to stand.
“Not while you’re busy with me, they’re not,” Caleb gasped. He felt Pollard’s mind, pressing into his own with all of its energy, no longer focused on controlling the old-bloods.
Pollard blinked, confused for a moment. Caleb pushed harder, relieving the pressure of the mutant’s attack.
“No…” Pollard grunted. “Damn you!”
He tried to pull back from the struggle, to reestablish his control over the old-bloods, but Caleb would not release him from the battle. He pushed even harder, forcing the Commander to devote all of his energies to defending against Caleb’s attack.
Tess watched the silent battle in horrified fascination, uncertain of what to do. She suddenly became aware of a subtle movement to her right. She turned to see Garner, standing as rigidly as a statue, his face twisted with some unseen strain.
“Gar?” she whispered.
The tyrannosaur-man was beginning to shake visibly. Tess could hear a low growl coming from deep in his throat.
“Garner? It’s me, Tess!” she said frantically. She looked behind her to see the other old-bloods standing motionless, as if in a trance.
“Garner, you gotta’ snap out of it!” she hissed.
The Ne Shaazi soldier stared nervously at its struggling commander, then at Tess. It drew its stun gun and stepped quietly toward the old-bloods, slipping up behind Tess unseen.
“Stop,” it croaked, pressing the gun against Tess’s back.
Tess froze, then stared up at Garner’s straining face.
“Come on!” she whispered.
“I said sto...” the Ne Shaazi choked as Garner’s arm snapped out. His reach was short, but still long enough to take a firm grasp on the creature’s skinny neck. The soldier’s arms flailed wildly, dropping the gun as Garner squeezed with his two-fingered hand. Short as they were, the tyrannosaur-man’s arms were still stunningly strong. With a crunch of neck bones, the Ne Shaazi fell limply to the floor, its legs kicking robotically.
Tess and Garner turned to see several other Ne Shaazi, stun guns drawn, piling onto the slow-moving side elevators that led from the command floor to the observation deck.
The other old-bloods began to blink and shake their heads dizzily as Caleb continued his battle with Pollard. The mutant had recovered from his earlier surprise and was assaulting Caleb’s mind with an energy born of raw fury.
Tess looked from the approaching Ne Shaazi soldiers to Caleb, shaking and sweating in the warped shadow of Commander Pollard. “Garner, get the others in the elevator,” Tess said quickly. “I’ll get Caleb.”
Garner nodded groggily and began guiding the disoriented old-bloods into the open elevator as Tess bolted toward Caleb.
Pollard continued to stare into Caleb’s glazed eyes, a wicked grin on his misshapen face. Caleb stood numbly on wobbling legs. The force of the psychic struggle filled his mind, obscuring all senses. He was only dimly aware of the orange glow of the mutant’s leering eye. He hardly knew whether he was still standing, or if the Commander was staring down at his limp body. Slowly, unseen by Caleb, Pollard began to reach forward with his powerful, razor-clawed hand. The long, knobby fingers wrapped tightly around Caleb’s sweat-soaked neck. Pollard began gently pressing the tip of his hooked thumb-claw into the soft flesh of Caleb’s throat, savoring the sight of the first drop of blood welling up from the tiny pin-prick. An approaching sound caught the Commander’s attention, momentarily distracting him and loosening his grip on Caleb’s body and mind. It sounded like clawed feet, dashing quickly across the metal floor behind him.
Caleb, sensing Pollard’s distraction, gave one final, shuddering mental push, flooding the Commander’s mind with confusion as Tess launched herself through the air at the Commander.
Before Pollard could turn around, the raptor-woman smashed into the mutant’s shoulders with her sickle-shaped toe-claws. Caleb was barely able to tumble out of the way as the Commander’s gigantic bulk tipped forward under the sudden impact.
Pollard fell screaming to the hard metal deck, swinging his arms behind him wildly as Tess slid down the entire length of his back, dragging her five-inch toe-claws through scales, muscles and tendons, all the while ripping and tearing with her long finger-claws.
The Commander’s back was a shredded, bloody ruin by the time he managed to reach back and flick Tess off of him. She rolled with the blow, landing lightly on her feet a few yards away.
As she bounded toward Caleb, the first of the Ne Shaazi came rushing across the deck from the side elevators. Tess rolled into a somersault in mid-run as the soldier swung at her with a crackling stun gun. Unprepared for her sudden dive, the soldier’s momentum carried him over her rolling body. Tess slashed upward at the soldier’s belly with one foot as he stumbled over her, then sprang to her feet again. As Tess skidded to a stop beside Caleb, the wounded soldier sprawled onto the deck, his entrails dragging behind him.
Caleb coughed and tried to push himself onto his feet, but his quivering muscles would not lift him. He felt Tess’s strong fingers grab onto the back of his leather vest, lifting him into the air and over her lightly feathered shoulder. In a few short bounds, she carried him into the main elevator, lowering his weakened body to the floor.
The thick doors slid shut with a soft thump just as the other Ne Shaazi soldiers reached them, slamming uselessly against the solid metal. Tess leaned forward to hit the “Down” button, but Garner’s thick hand stopped her.
�
��The others are up on level three,” he grumbled, pressing the “3” button. “There are a lot of guards up there, so get ready.”
Tess nodded, wiping the blood from her hands and feet with the edge of her shirt. “I’m ready,” she said, a hard edge in her voice as she helped Caleb to his feet.
He was recovering quickly, the strain being more mental than physical. By the time the elevator came to a stop, he was able to stand on his own, although somewhat shakily.
The doors opened onto a short hallway, roughly twenty feet long, ending in an open doorway. Beyond, a Ne Shaazi soldier was visible sitting at a small control panel and staring vacantly at a glowing monitor.
Garner pushed past Caleb and Tess and walked boldly up to the door. The soldier almost didn’t notice him until he entered the small room.
“Ah, there you are,” it rasped, looking up from the monitor with squinting eyes. “Did you capture the intruders?”
Garner stepped forward into the room, speaking in a dull, monotone voice. “Yes. The intruders have been... Ah, shit!” he cursed as a high-pitched alarm echoed from several panels in the ceiling. The Ne Shaazi glanced around uneasily.
“What’s going on here? Who...” He fell silent as Garner’s foot swung up in a powerful kick, sending the soldier crashing into the far wall with a crunch of bones.
“Come on,” Garner urged, waving the others ahead. “We have to get through the prison area into the other guard station. That’s where all the door controls are.”
Caleb followed Tess into the next room, a long hallway lined with thick metal doors. Each door had a small window with heavy grating, offering a dim view of the room inside. Tess peered into the first window as Garner continued down the length of the hall.
“Laura, Phil!” Tess whispered into the small cell. “Hold on, we’re getting you out of here.”
Caleb hurried past Tess on his weakened legs as Garner glanced impatiently back over his shoulder.
“We’ll have time for reunions later,” Garner grumbled hurriedly. “We have to get these cells open before the whole crew comes up here.”
Tess turned reluctantly from the tiny cell window and bounded lightly after Caleb and Garner. Hank and the others trailed close behind, whispering nervously.
The group moved quickly down the long hallway, passing more than twenty cells before the passageway curved around a corner to the right. As Caleb rounded the corner, he saw that the hall ended abruptly at a pair of large sliding doors set with small windows. The glass showed only darkness beyond.
“That’s the other guard station,” Garner said, eying the closed doors suspiciously. “The controls for the cell doors are in there.” Tess and the other old-bloods stepped past Caleb, heading for the doors eagerly.
“Wait a minute,” Garner whispered, stopping the others with a small gesture. “Why isn’t anyone in there? I don’t see any lights...”
With a low hissing gasp, the doors slid open, revealing a vague, shadowy space beyond. Before any of them could turn or duck for cover, a dozen Ne Shaazi soldiers poured out into the hallway. Almost immediately, Caleb noticed that the foremost soldier was armed not with a stun gun, but one of the powerful machine guns.
Tess tensed to run, but Caleb grabbed her shoulder to stop her as the soldier leveled the lethal weapon at the group. Garner and the others stood rigidly still, realizing that they were no match for such powerful weapons.
“Your meeting with the Commander is not yet concluded,” the soldier hissed. “He would like to have a word with you. Particularly you two.” He glared evilly at Caleb and Tess.
Several other soldiers stepped forward, holding large manacles in their clawed hands. “You will be restrained,” said the soldier with the machine gun. “Anyone who resists will be killed, immediately.” Garner growled but remained still as the soldiers began putting Caleb and the old-bloods in shackles.
As the metal manacles clicked shut around Caleb’s wrists, he glanced over the shoulder of his Ne Shaazi captor, into the darkened guard room. It seemed as though he had seen movement in there, but all of the soldiers were out here, in the light. Suddenly, the movement was there again, but this time he saw that it was in the darkened hall beyond the guard room. Some large shape was slinking quietly toward them through the darkness. Caleb could just hear the faint sound of soft, snorting breath and claws clicking on the hard floor.
Caleb’s face brightened with sudden realization. He looked over at Garner, who was grinning with grim satisfaction as the Ne Shaazi soldier tried futilely to fit the stiff manacles onto his oddly-proportioned arms.
“Hey, Gar,” Caleb said, his voice strangely relaxed. “Who do you give better odds: A heavily armed Ne Shaazi soldier, or two-thousand pounds of pissed-off Ceratosaurus?”
“What?” Garner said, scowling as the Ne Shaazi tried to squeeze his arms into the manacles.
The gun-toting Ne Shaazi leveled his weapon at Caleb. “You,” it rasped, “Stop talking. I don’t want any more—EEEEP!”
The soldier’s voice trailed into a shrill screech as a gigantic form lunged through the doorway with a flash of glittering golden eyes and gleaming white teeth. The other Ne Shaazi leapt away from the doorway in panic, leaving the stumbling machine gunner cowering in the shadow of the bellowing ceratosaur. The terrified soldier began firing before the gun was even pointed toward the dinosaur. Two of the other soldiers fell, shrieking, under the wild spray of bullets. The rest of the shots ripped into the ceiling lights, throwing that section of hallway into deep shadows. Caleb heard, but couldn’t quite see, the Ne Shaazi’s body rip into pieces under the fangs of the enraged dinosaur.
Caleb watched in shock as bloody carnage erupted on either side of him. In front of him, a few of the soldiers halted their panicked flight, turning back to rush at the ceratosaur with flaring stun guns. Too late, they learned that the weapons’ voltage was only enough to anger the dinosaur further. Their severed limbs and shattered bodies smacked against the metal walls, leaving long streaks of brilliant red.
Behind Caleb, Garner, Tess and the others were tearing into the other soldiers. Eric, the massive diplodocus-man, had used his shackles to strangle one of the soldiers. Two others died impaled on Gabe’s horns or Rebecca’s spikes. One soldier crumpled under a bone-shattering blow from Hank’s clubbed tail. Tess’s claws tore through the body of another soldier, and Garner stood over the body of the Ne Shaazi who had tried to shackle him. The creature lay limply on the floor, its head caved in by a single blow from the thick metal manacles.
Caleb felt a slight wave of dizziness wash over him as he looked at the bodies strewn up and down the hall. He almost didn’t notice as Chuck moved beside him, steadying him with her blood-speckled snout. The sound of urgent voices echoing from the cells stirred Caleb out of his shock.
“We better get these doors open fast before they send more soldiers,” Caleb said.
“Already on it,” Garner replied as he and Eric headed into the empty guard room.
After a few tense minutes of flicking switches and pressing buttons, the old-bloods managed to find the controls that unlocked all of the cell doors. The other prisoners poured from the open doors, weak from worry and lack of food, but still eager to escape. Armed with stun guns and the machine gun, Caleb, Garner, and the others crept quickly through the dark guard room and down a flight of metal stairs to the deck below. The group, now numbering fifty, moved rapidly down the long, winding hallways. They were surprised to find their path clear of enemies. The alarms continued to echo through the metal halls, but now there was another sound as well. The steady, buzzing hum of the ship’s engines was slowly growing louder and more irregular. Periodically, a deep rumbling could be heard as the lights flickered and dimmed and the entire ship seemed to tremble and rock.
At the end of a particularly long hallway, Garner was elated to find a large elevator, possibly meant to lift heavy machinery to the upper levels. The lift was just large enough for all of them, even Chuck, though her n
ose and tail brushed the walls.
The elevator brought the group safely to the lower deck, though it seemed to shudder a bit under the weight. Garner leveled the machine gun at the doors while several others held stun guns at the ready. The doors slid open to reveal an empty hallway. Just as Garner moved to step out into the hall, a small, wiry form jumped into view.
“Kuu-kuu! Ha ha, yes! Just in time,” it clucked happily. Garner barely stopped himself from shooting in time to gawk confusedly at the Awaru.
“Where the hell did this guy come from?” he said, eyeing the creature suspiciously.
“He’s with us,” Caleb said quickly.
“Of course,” Garner answered as he moved out into the hall. “It’s not enough to bring your pet dinosaur. You had to pick up a stray Awaru too, huh?”
“Actually, he sort of brought us here,” Caleb said.
“Yes, yes,” Krezahu chirped. “Good story. We will tell it later. Now we must leave before the ship falls.”
Garner halted and spun around.
“What?” he said, eyes bugging. “What does he mean ‘fall?’”
“I don’t know...” Caleb stammered, noticing for the first time that Krezahu was clutching a bundle of wires and circuitry in his hand.
“Fall, fall!” Krezahu said, making a plummeting gesture with his empty hand. “You understand, yes?”
Caleb stared wide-eyed at the bundle of severed wires.
“What did you...” he began. The ship shuddered and lurched again.
“Forget it!” Garner growled. “Just go!” He pointed down the hall to a pair of large hangar doors. “That’s the repair bay,” he said quickly, running toward the doors. “There’re a bunch of elevator-things in there. That’s how they brought us on board.”
Carnival of Time Page 17