“Excuse me sir,” Vynce said and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. The man turned. There was light fuzz on his cheeks that came from days of not shaving, and an eye patch over his left eye.
“Yes?” the man asked.
“Did you work maintenance here on the Metropolis Seven?”
“Yeah. But there’s no use trying to get down into the maintenance tunnels now. The damn infected are down there, and they’re building.”
“Building what?”
“I’ve got no fucking idea, but they’re smart. They’ve started making traps for us. Last time I went down there, we lost three men to a false bit of flooring they’d disguised. They’re protecting something down there, but I don’t know what.”
“The hangars with the evac ships. That’s where we need to go. Is there a way we could get down there?”
“Sure, you could. But it all depends on whether they’ve gummed up the doors with that gunk that they use. We’ve never been able to make it close to the hangar to be able to tell for sure.”
“Did you ever have to remove the gunk from anything? If we could get to the hangar and it’s all sealed up, is there a way we can get rid of it?”
“Well fire seems to work well. It melts right through the stuff like wax.”
“Would an explosion work?”
“I’m sure it’d do the trick, but if you go and blow the doors off, you won’t be able to re-dock with the ship.”
Vynce raised an eyebrow and asked, “Do you really think we’d be coming back?”
The man laughed. “I guess not.”
“Tell me everything you can about getting to the hangar,” Vynce said.
Jaxon sat next to Ava and held her remaining hand. He had been with her through so much already. He never thought that he would be there with her while she lost her arm. For the entire time that he had known her, she only had a left arm and refused to talk about how she lost the other. He knew now that Ava would escape the ship alive. She had to. Everything was lining up far too perfectly. Once again, Jaxon marveled at the ability of the timestream to remain constant, even with meddlers like him sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.
The chip that Jaxon held was something of utmost importance. Without it, humanity would be wiped from existence. The entire course of human history would be altered and led onto a path of destruction. No matter what, he had to help the crew of the Icarus escape the Metropolis Seven so he could catch a lift back to New Earth. No matter what, the chip had to get back to the headquarters of the Agency.
Jaxon always had the ability to pre-empt the course of events. Some called it premonition. Some called it intuition. Others blamed the constant jumping between timestreams. Whatever it was, those who were employed by the Agency and worked so that the human race’s timeline continued could often see a little further forward into the future and backwards into the past. Their existence as three-dimensional beings were heightened to allow them a tiny bit more perspective than others.
His heightened perspective had led him to a train of thought that he did not want to follow. That track led to death, and he wanted nothing more than to derail it. But the flow of time is a stubborn thing, and he knew that it may have been too late to change tracks at this stage of the game.
Ava’s hand squeezed his fingers gently. Her eyes began to flutter open. When her eyes met his, she smiled and squeezed his hand again.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.”
“Some people get hit by busses and escape fairly unscathed.”
“But I went under the front wheels, right?” she said and smiled.
“Right.”
Ava looked at the bandages that covered where her right arm should have been. She let go of Jaxon’s hand and pushed herself up from the bed.
“They had to take it. What do you need?” he asked.
“Bucket,” she said.
Jaxon grabbed a vomit bag from under the bed and handed it to Ava. She emptied her stomach into it, but there was nothing left in there but bitter dark-brown bile. Jaxon rubbed her back gently until she was finished, but her body wouldn’t stop shaking.
“You’re in shock right now. Just remember to breathe. Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“I’m starving, actually.”
“I’ll see what I can scrounge up.”
“Thank you.”
Jaxon left her side and ventured out into the waiting area. He slipped his helmet back on to hide his face, just in case Young Jaxon saw him. Doctor Harris said she would be just outside if they needed anything, but she couldn’t stay in the operating theatre as there were others that needed her help too. He walked around the waiting area until he saw Doctor Harris. She was busy redressing a young boy’s stump where his forearm had once been.
“This is healing quite well. When we get back to New Earth, they’ll be able to give you a new hand. This’ll teach you for touching things you shouldn’t.”
The young boy smiled and nodded.
After Doctor Harris finished wrapping the boy’s bandages Jaxon asked “Excuse me, doctor? Ava’s awake, and she’s hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
“Of course. We don’t have much given the amount of people we’re trying to feed, but we have enough. Follow me.”
Jaxon followed her to a walk-in supply closet that was well-stocked with rations. She handed two bars to Jaxon and said, “These are packed with everything you need. They may not taste the greatest, but they’ll fill you both up and give a boost to your immune systems, too. It’ll help her fight off any lingering infection. Not fleshling, but other bugs. She should heal well.”
“Thank you,” Jaxon said and started to walk back towards the operating theatre. He opened the doors and saw Ava on the ground, breathing heavily. He rushed over to her side and helped her back up to her feet.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I tried to put my suit back on myself, but as soon as I stood up it felt like gravity re-engaged the wrong way up. All I remember after that is the floor.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t hurt yourself. You can’t push yourself like this right now. You need to focus on resting and gathering your strength.”
Ava looked into Jaxon’s eyes and slammed her fist on the metal table.
“I can’t just rest. I can’t let myself sit here feeling sorry for myself when Draco, Raze, Al and all the other people on this ship are still in danger.”
“I understand, but in your delicate state we can’t risk further injury.”
“Delicate state? Fuck you! You say you know me, but if you really knew me you’d know that I can’t just sit here doing nothing. And I sure as hell won’t just sit here like some hologame princess waiting to be rescued.”
Jaxon smiled and said, “You’re right, of course. What can I do?”
“Help me get my suit back on.”
Ava slid back off the table and onto the cold floor. She steadied herself with her left hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Jaxon offered her his arm, and she pushed it away.
“I’m fine,” she said, “Just bring me the rest of my smartsuit and help me get into it.”
Jaxon nodded and brought over the cutaway pieces of the smartsuit, still with armor attached to it. He held it up and offered the left arm to Ava. She slid the smartsuit on like a jacket and covered her bare flesh. The pieces of smartsuit instantly reconnected to each other when Ava put them into place. Her smartsuit knew her body and knew how it should sit on her. When the suit began to reattach itself near Ava’s missing arm, the suit stopped reconnecting. There was a flap of smartsuit big enough to cover the injury, but it didn’t know what to do. The suit expected there to be an arm where there wasn’t one.
“Can you turn this way a little?” Jaxon asked.
Ava turned, and Jaxon gently pressed the suit against the bandages. He tried to match up the edges as best as he could, but the suit was not respondin
g.
“I know this will be hard, but you have to try and force your suit to make the connection. It thinks that it needs to stay disconnected here, because you’re still expecting your arm to be there. But it’s not. You’ll need to accept that before we can get the suit on, okay?”
Ava could feel the anger welling up inside of her. She couldn’t just accept that her arm had been cut from her body. She couldn’t just accept it and move on like nothing had happened. Her anger subsided and was replaced by a deep sense of loss. That arm had been a part of her. Literally.
She had written with it, killed with it, loved with it.
And now it was gone.
Cut off like a piece of waste.
“How am I...? How am I...” she began to say, but her words were cut off as she began to sob.
Jaxon came in to comfort her, but she pushed him away. This was all too much, far too quickly. She suffered with her pain, by herself. She sometimes tried to forget about it by getting down to the bottom of a bottle, but it was always hers. It was her pain. Her loss. Her anger. Her hate. She didn’t need anyone else to deal with it.
She had never needed anyone else.
But this time traveler had made her feel unlike she had ever felt before. Ava was used to being seen as an object. Either a something to be fucked, or as a weapon to be used to eliminate the Alliance’s enemies. Only two people in the galaxy had ever made her feel the way that she felt at that moment. Captain Goldwing was one, and Jaxon was another.
That fucking meddling time-travelling prick. If he hadn’t shown up when he did, things would have been all right.
She kept holding him at bay with her left arm outstretched against his chest.
Things wouldn’t have been all right, and she knew it. Vynce would be dead. And so would she.
She had lost her arm, but she was still alive. Her lip quivered as she dropped her remaining arm and looked up at Jaxon. He had changed the opacity of his visor. She could see his face. If he had looked down at her with even a trace of pity, she wouldn’t have let him in ever again.
It would be done.
Over.
She didn’t need any romantic bullshit. All romance ever did was get people killed.
There was no pity on his face. She saw something in his eyes. Something far deeper and more intimate than mere concern, but she wasn’t ready to accept exactly what that was.
He wrapped his arms around her, and she let down her walls. She wrapped her remaining arm around Jaxon’s waist and buried her head into his chest.
Chapter Forty
Draco found three grapnel launchers amongst the emergency supplies. The grapnel attachments could convert from a magnetic flat surface to a three-pronged hooked attachment for those situations where there were no magnetic surfaces to attach to. After the hook or magnetic head stuck firmly to a surface, the rope would reel you in to your destination once you pulled the trigger.
They were used for hull repairs on the outside of the ship, but Draco thought they might come in handy as they ascended the tower. Raze had found spare rifles and more spare magazines than the three of them could carry. Their ammunition had been running low, but there was no telling just how much resistance they would face between the hazard shelter and Metro Tower. There was a chance that the infected might stay as unaggressive as they had been, but Draco didn’t want to be caught out if they decided to abruptly end their armistice.
Aloysius had mapped out the entire Metropolitan District in his data banks and the power grid hadn’t even come back online yet. Draco held one rifle in his hands, and another was magnetically docked against the back of his suit. He wouldn’t find himself without a rifle again. Not with the lives of survivors at stake.
Draco handed a grapnel launcher to Raze and Aloysius. Draco put his in his left thigh holster.
“What’s the best way for us to get to Metro Tower, Al?” Draco asked.
“The street outside of the shelter leads straight onto Montague Road, which then leads straight onto the tower. It should only take us fifteen minutes to get there if we keep our pace brisk and don’t encounter any resistance.”
“And if we do encounter resistance?”
“We will have to hope that we have enough bullets to open a gap and continue on. I would not recommend using the maintenance shafts below the streets here.”
“Why is that?”
“The map I was able to access listed known areas of infection. Under the streets is a nest. A hive. A spawning ground. Something. I don’t exactly know what to call it, but it was marked as a purple danger area when the maps were still being updated.”
“Do you think that’s why they’re being non-aggressive right now?”
“The behavior seems at odds with almost every other species in the known universe. Almost all creatures who are born of a nest or hive often attack intruders who get close to it with unmatched ferocity. Some creatures even sacrifice their own lives in defense of the nest. Like honey bees on New Earth, or the nancarra on Aeleras. Both sacrifice their lives in the defense of their homes.”
“I don’t like it. If these things had the ability to think, I’d say that it feels like we’re walking into a trap.”
“To be fair, we don’t really know a lot about their capacity for intelligence. They have grown from human bodies; therefore, they are the products of humanity. Humanity is known for its intelligence, its cunning...”
“And our capacity for violence and cruelty.”
“Yes. That too. There was no need to the hunter we faced to tear Pim in two. If it was interested in creating more of those things, then it would simply have simply incapacitated him. But instead, it tore him apart.”
“Could it have been trying to anger us?” Raze asked.
“Quite possibly,” Aloysius said.
“That’s not something I want to think about,” Draco said.
“We simply don’t know enough about the creatures. But as long as we can commandeer the ship and take control, we might be able to get out of here alive,” Aloysius said.
Draco nodded and started for the door to the shelter.
“Just a second, Captain. I think I’ve found something,” Raze said as he opened a cabinet. Raze pulled out a harness with two tanks attached to it.
“Is that...?” Aloysius asked.
Raze threaded his arms through the harness and settled the tanks behind his shoulders. A long hose dangled between the two tanks. He pulled out a long, slender nozzle that looked almost like a weed killer, but had a strange tip and two handles up its length. Raze reached backwards, grabbed the hose from the back of the tanks and screwed it into the end. He flicked a switch on the side, and a small flame ignited.
“A flamethrower might come in handy,” Raze said as he got back to his feet. The tanks on his back and the flamethrower nozzle held across his chest enhanced his already fearsome presence.
“Good plan. Let’s move out.”
Draco was the first out of the shelter, followed by Aloysius, then Raze. The infected had amassed outside of the shelter while they outfit themselves. Draco had his rifle raised at the closest pair of infected, a young man whose head had begun to fuse with his chest cavity due to a monstrous growth coming from his right shoulder-blade, and an older woman whose arms had split in two. The bottom pair of arms were spindly, ending in a single finger, with a claw the size of a dagger growing from the end of each. The top pair of arms were more muscular, and each of the three remaining fingers grasped the air endlessly. The pair looked from Draco to the barrel of his gun and back again. The young man bared his teeth as best as his twisted flesh would allow but made no move to attack.
The horde of fleshlings stood around and watched. Draco started to walk along the road towards the intersection with Montague Road. The infected made no move. They watched Draco with their blank expressions but didn’t attempt to block their movements.
Smaller fleshlings had started to come out of the buildings and drains to watch.
“They’re nothing more than biological surveillance cameras?” Draco asked.
“Until they get the command to attack, of course.”
“Yes, and then we’d better be ready to run.”
“If these things are just watching us, then who’s watching the feed?” Raze asked.
“There has to be someone watching us through their eyes.”
“Not someone, but something. If this truly is a nest, or a hive, then there has to be some kind of hierarchy of leadership,” Aloysius said.
“Most New Earth insects have a queen at the heart of their hives. Could this really be all that different?” Raze asked.
“It’s very possible, and it would make sense from what we’ve seen. These infected are like workers or drones. The little ones made from parts of their hosts and the ones that have affixed themselves to the walls in the heart of the ship are like scouts,” Aloysius said.
“And the hunters we’ve seen, they’re like soldier ants,” Draco said.
“Precisely. If these drones aren’t trying to capture us, then they’re deviating from the biological reprogramming the organism has given them. There must be some intelligence driving them. Best we be careful from here on out.”
“Noted,” Draco said and continued through the horde of fleshlings.
They were clustered together so closely that jogging at a brisk pace was almost impossible. Every time he had to brush against one of the infected, he hoped that it would not take it as a show of aggression. Even if the creatures were not aggressive to them, that could all change if they misinterpreted innocent and unavoidable contact.
They kept walking toward Montague Road, weaving their way between the infected. When they reached the intersection, they turned onto Montague road and headed towards Metro Tower. The building’s top floor was illuminated, but the streets below were still plunged into darkness.
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