“I’m not really interested in having reality imploding around us, so I can assure you that won’t be a problem,” Draco said, “What’s the second thing?”
“We’re all in great danger. Every moment we’re on this ship it is getting worse. The force in the bowels of the ship grows with every new host it captures. I would highly suggest that everyone keeps their armor integrity at one hundred percent. We are safe in this room, but there is no telling what we might encounter as we delve deeper into the ship,” Jaxon said.
“If you’ve already been here, back when you were seventeen, you can tell us what happens, right? That would save a whole lot of hassle,” Ava said.
“I can’t. If I tell you what I experienced before, it might alter the outcome and distort the timeline.”
Ava grabbed onto the chest panel of Jaxon’s armor and pulled his face to hers.
“Do any of us die?” Ava demanded.
“You know I can’t answer that question,” he replied.
“Damn it, you can’t just keep that kind of information from us! If one of us died when you were here last time, then maybe we might be able to fix it this time around!”
Jaxon fixed his gaze on Draco, closed his eyes and sighed.
“I can’t answer that question, Ava. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you will be fucking sorry if you get one of us killed. I’ll make real sure of that.”
“If I cause the death of any of you, you have my full permission to return the favor,” Jaxon said.
In a flurry of movement, Ava kicked Jaxon’s leg out from under him, withdrew her knife from its sheath, and launched herself on top of him. When she landed, Ava held the point of her knife to his throat.
“Well how about I just remove you from the equation all together, hmm?” she said. “By your logic, your existence itself is enough to change things. If this has all happened before, and you’ve met us before this in your own timeline, that means that some of us make it. You said I look different without the scar, that you’ve sat up talking with Raze, and you know Draco. That’s three out of five. What about Al? What about Vynce? Do they make it?”
Jaxon sighed. “Damn it, Ava. You always were too smart or your own good. I’ve met all of you before, but that doesn’t mean anything. If any of you go into the events to come thinking that you’re bulletproof you might find out just how mortal you are.”
Draco thought about intervening, but he knew that Ava would never take a life that didn’t deserve to be taken, and never without his orders. Sometimes she just liked to put the wind up someone, especially when the hairs on the back of her neck had started to stand on end.
Ava relented, so Jaxon continued.
“The information I carry with me is vital for the continued survival of humanity, and the continued existence of New Earth” he said.
Ava stared into his eyes, unflinching.
“New Earth is a shithole anyway,” she said and got back to her feet. She sheathed her knife and picked her helmet up. She smoothed her hair back and slipped the helmet back over her face.
She turned back to Jaxon. “If I have to sacrifice every life on New Earth for my crew to live, I’ll do it. So you just fucking watch yourself.”
Jaxon got back to his feet and secured his helmet. “These things that used to be the crew of the Metropolis Seven, well we had a name for them. We called them fleshlings.”
He changed the opacity of his visor. The dome became mirror-like once again.
“Fleshlings, huh? Well that’s fucking disgusting,” Ava said.
“It was a name that stuck. It made it easier for us to deal with the fact that the people who we once knew were now trying to kill us. To turn us. If we called them infected, or hosts, then it sounded like we might be able to save them. But we couldn’t, because they people they once were, were already gone,” Jaxon said. “We should keep moving.”
“Al, can you tell which way would be quickest for us to get to the center of the ship?” Draco asked.
“From here there are two ways. One passes through the water processing plant, and the other passes through a number of different service tunnels but takes us much deeper into the belly of the ship. From Jaxon’s advice, that may be a bad idea,” Aloysius said.
Jaxon nodded. “Don’t go down there.”
“Then I believe we only have one choice,” Aloysius continued, “We pass through the water processing plant, and then we enter the outer city limits and see if the trains are still running. If they’re not, we walk along the tracks to the Residential District, then into the Metropolitan District at the center of the city. MetroCorp Tower is located in the heart of the city, and that’s where we need to go. We should be able to take control of the ship from there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Draco said, but Aloysius raised a finger to indicate that he had more to add.
“But there’s one slight problem that I can foresee. The water processing plant is a likely place for a concentration of these creatures. If they are using humans for their genetic template, then they are more than ninety percent water. They will need a source of water to survive, and it’s likely that they would try to defend it once it has been captured.”
“Either way, we’re at no more risk than we are right now,” Vynce said. “Eventually they’re going to figure out we’re in here, and they’ll figure out a way to get in. If we’re moving, and we stick together, we should be fine.”
“We know we’ll be in for a fight if we head through the service tunnels,” Draco said. “But we don’t know what’s happening at the plant. I’d rather take a chance than walk into certain danger. We’ll go through the plant, and like Vynce said, we’ll stick together. We’ll watch each other’s’ back, and we’ll get through this alive.”
Draco got to his feet. The crew followed Draco down the tight corridor in single file. Vynce brought up the rear. It was eerily quiet except for their footfalls that echoed around them. Draco held his pistol in his hands and missed his rifle dearly. He prided himself on always prepared for any situation, but being chased down a maintenance shaft by a giant monstrosity was not something he’d practiced for. That’s one contingency that hadn’t crossed his mind. But he had faith in his crew. They had made it through tough situations before, and they’d make it through this one.
If someone had to make a call here, it would be Draco. It would always be Draco.
He thought back Torusk, where they had picked up Arak Nara. He thought back to the call he had to make there. The Icarus’s old pilot, Ean Breck, had been captured by the same mercenary outfit that Arak Nara was working for – the Rust Eaters. They had been paid in advance by Veck Simms to play interference. To stop Draco’s pursuit.
The choice between sacrificing an old friend and the safety of the galaxy was simple. Draco chose the galaxy. He left Ean in the custody of the mercenaries. They had their money, and Ean knew how to talk his way out of a sticky situation. With Arak coming aboard the Icarus, the Rust Eaters were down one pilot too. Hopefully that would be enough to secure Ean’s survival, but there was no way to know for sure.
Taking Veck Simms into custody was worth the risk.
Draco would rather have the death of one man, even a treasured friend, on his conscience over millions of innocents.
They came to a fork in the corridor without any signage or direction. Each path was secured by heavy steel doors.
“Al, can you see which way it is to water processing?” Draco asked.
“They should both lead there, going from the schematics I have downloaded,” Aloysius said back.
“We’re going right. Al, open it up,” Draco said.
Aloysius interfaced with the door, which opened a moment later.
They continued along a curved path, past numerous empty dark rooms. The lights from the corridor were just enough to light up the threshold of the rooms, but the darkness inside held evidence of the horrors long past. Dark chunks of flesh lined the walls and floors.
&nb
sp; A deep bellowing sound came from below. The walls began to shake as it echoed around them. They continued at a clip, headfirst into the unknown.
Draco swore as he stopped in his tracks. The corridor in front of them had been completely destroyed. Sections of the floor had been torn away, which opened up into a black abyss, infinite and impenetrable by the meagre light source on the corridor roof.
The ground shook and the terrible sound of rending metal pierced the air.
“What the fuck?” Vynce shouted from behind Draco. “It’s behind us!”
Draco turned back, and then he saw it. A mass of twisted flesh and bone had torn its way through the side of the corridor behind them. It was as thick and wide as the corridor itself. It completely blocked their retreat. The giant mass writhed, pulsated, and surged forward towards them like an enormous skinless muscle. It was moving fast.
“Lights on, we’re going dark!” Draco said. His flashlight switched on as he turned back towards the black void. The beam of light cut through the darkness ahead of him. The corridor continued on into the distance. The display inside his helmet measured the distance and showed it as 12 yards away. There was no way anyone but Aloysius could make that jump.
Draco stopped on the precipice of the darkness and looked down. His low-light vision showed him the dire situation in startling details. There was nothing but twisted metal below, sticking up in sharp jagged spears from a pool of water. There was no way to tell how deep that water was, but they were running short on options. His heads-up display estimated that the water depth was between seven and ten feet. Deep enough.
“We have to jump. Follow me!” Without hesitation Draco leapt into the darkness below. He was in the air for a few seconds, then plunged deep into the cold water below. It was so cold that he could feel the chill through his armor. His flashlight shone through the murky water. Particles of muck floated through the water. Visibility was almost zero. It looked muddy, but he had a feeling that the particles drifting through the water were something much worse.
Other shafts of light pieced the water as Draco swam towards the surface. The others had followed his lead, and Draco could only hope that he hadn’t led them into a trap.
Draco broke the surface and was quickly joined by Jaxon and Ava.
“Over here!” Aloysius said. He stood on a pile of debris at the edge of the water, his hand outstretched.
Draco took his hand and was lifted out of the water. Aloysius took Ava’s hand while Draco helped Jaxon out of the water. Raze broke the surface soon after, but Vynce was nowhere to be seen.
“Something’s got Vynce. He’s stuck down there at the bottom. I tried to get to him, but I couldn’t. It was too dark, and that thing was too quick!” Raze said.
Vynce’s voice came over the commlink, and he sounded hurt, “Fucker grabbed me by the leg and it’s dragging me somewhere. I can’t tell where I am. You guys go on, I’ll find a way out of this.”
“You just hold on Vynce,” Ava said, unsheathed her combat knife, and leapt into the water.
Jaxon was in the water a second after Ava, following her.
Draco motioned with his hand to stop Raze from jumping in after them. “We need to check situation up here. Ava, Jaxon, Vynce, you be careful. Rendezvous with us when you can. We’ll continue on as planned, towards the water processing plant.”
“I’ve just activated my tracking signal, guys, so you should see my location on your HUD. This fucker’s moving fast,” Vynce said.
“You’re not allowed to die unless I give you permission, you ginger fuck,” Ava said.
“Yes ma’am,” Vynce replied.
Chapter Twenty-One
Under the murky water, Ava swam towards the red blip on their heads-up display. It was moving away quicker than they could swim. Ava’s armor started to drag her towards the bottom of the passage, but suddenly there was a pressure around her waist. The same thing that got Vynce had gotten her!
She twisted around to see Jaxon’s sleek mirror-helmed armor above her. His hands were around her waist.
“We’ll go much faster this way,” he said.
Ava relaxed and let her hands rest by her sides, reducing the drag that her bulky armor had in the water. This guy’s suit was something else!
“Enlighten me, how are you swimming without using your arms or legs?” Ava asked.
“Multi-environment survival suit. Heat resistant, cold resistant, in-built gravlift boots, underwater propulsion system. Everything I need to survive is in this suit,” Jaxon said.
“Sounds awesome. How do I get one of those for myself?”
“Once we get back to New Earth, I’ll see if I can pull some strings.”
“Sweet.”
The water around them became murkier and harder to see through as they continued along. They entered into a small opening at the base of the waterway. It was a corridor which had been completely submerged. Sheets of pulsating flesh lined the walls. Fleshy polyps grew from every surface, like alien egg sacs. The walls closed in on them as they continued until it was almost impossible to navigate. Their pace slowed to a crawl.
“Hold on, Vynce. We’re coming for you!” Ava said.
Back on dry land, Draco, Raze and Aloysius were trying to get their bearings. The schematics that Aloysius had downloaded were useless since something decided to do some remodeling. The chamber was huge, about the size of a football field. Behind them, on the other side of the pool of water, was a mass of flesh growing like a tumor on the side of the ship. It was the size of a house. The outside of the growth moved rhythmically, as though it was breathing. Or beating, like the ship had grown a heart. Tendrils grew from the sides of it, which anchored it to the wall.
“Captain, you’re going to want to see this,” Raze said and tapped Draco on the shoulder.
Draco spun and saw similar growths on the walls around them, and the roof above.
“Do you see how they move? Oh my, this is absolutely fascinating…” Aloysius said.
“They’re moving?” Raze asked.
“Oh yes, only a minute amount of movement, but yes. Those tendrils must be like the arms of a starfish. They use them to stick themselves to surfaces, but also use them as locomotion if they need to move.”
“We need to move,” Draco said.
“I must agree with you there, Captain,” Aloysius said.
Draco drew his pistol from its thigh holster and held it out in front of him. He felt exposed without his rifle, but there was nothing to be done to change the situation now. He would have to make do.
A sudden noise from above drew their attention. One of the growths had detached itself from the roof with a loud sucking sound. With equally wet, disgusting sounds, it pulled three of its tendrils free of the ceiling and let them fall. Now, it dangled in front of them by two abominable arms. The free tendrils reached out towards them, moving with a sudden unexpected quickness.
Draco looked around the cavernous chamber and saw that the rest of these growths were also sliding down the walls or detaching themselves from the ceiling. The huge growths were all converging on them.
Draco fired a single shot at the growth hanging in front of them. It recoiled with a deep audible grumble and gave up its hold to the ceiling. It fell to the ground in front of them with enough force to make Draco lose his balance. When it settled, it started to pulsate. The sides of the thing expanded and retracted slowly at first, then faster and faster with each passing moment. Small red lines started to appear over the outside of the growth.
It was going to burst open.
Draco turned to Aloysius and Raze. “Run!”
He ran around the giant pulsating growth and hurdled one of the tendrils. If he was right, then the tendrils weren’t actually reaching for them at all. They were just reaching for a place on the ground they could anchor to. As Draco jumped over the tendril, it gave no indication of rising to attempt to trap him. Three other growths fell around the chamber. If they were going to burst open like t
he house-sized chunk of flesh beside him, then they were in serious trouble.
The red lines had started to crack open as the thing pulsated. There was movement in the blackness inside.
Frenzied movement.
“Raze, do you have any grenades?” Draco asked.
“Grenades? Inside the ship?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Throw me one! Now!”
Raze pulled one of the grenades from his belt and threw it to Draco. Neither of them broke pace while it sailed through the air. Draco caught it on the full and stopped for a moment to line up his throw. He pulled the pin and threw the grenade.
Time seemed to slow as the grenade arced through the air, wheeling end over end as the cracks on the growth opened and closed. In a stroke of luck, the cracks opened a split-second before the grenade reached it. The grenade flew through the crack, which closed again after the grenade flew through.
The explosion was muffled, but the effects were not. The growth exploded outward in chunks. The growth was reduced to pulpy mush, and Draco’s suspicions were confirmed.
In the midst of the giant carcass he saw remnants of bodies. A hand here, a foot there, a trio of heads conjoined in an endless chorus of a silent scream.
“They’re birthing pods,” Draco said as he ran. “They must have loaded the bodies of the crew into these things and re-purposed them. Like eggs, but capable of changing multiple hosts at once.”
“Disgusting,” Raze said.
“Fascinating,” Aloysius said.
Two more impacts sounded off in the distance. Two more pods had fallen to the ground, and they were already started to crack open to birth their twisted children.
“Al, do we have an exit strategy here?” Draco asked.
“One moment, Captain. I’m searching for potential routes, but I’m not exactly sure which floor we’re on,” Aloysius responded.
Until they had a better plan, they could only continue forward. Draco led them through the chunky remains of the destroyed birthing pod. He watched the other pods as they slithered towards them very slowly on their tendrils. Draco passed a teratoma terror of hair and teeth growing out of the side of a severed torso.
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