That was all that was housed inside this massive chamber, but that was enough: all three systems kept the ship alive. If one of them failed, it meant death—if not instantly, then eventually. Nolan's attention lingered on the reactor that was crawling with hunters. If they didn't do something about that, they would all die in an explosion of radioactive fire. At least it would be quick.
But right now, they needed to get to the bridge, to the weapons cache. Once armed, they would... Well, Nolan didn't know what they would do, but he would feel better if they had a way to fight back. Perhaps Jakool and his friends would even answer some of his questions, if they could understand what it was he was asking.
Perhaps.
Forward, through the forest of skin. Nolan didn't know when he had relaxed about the scene around them, but he was in such a nightmare world that nothing shocked him for long. Even the spiders around the reactor no longer worried him beyond the academic. He was walking as though in a dream, and any moment something could change and that wouldn't shock him, either.
He stumbled, fell amongst a carpet of fine spider skin. Barely bigger than his hands, but it was a gross feeling to be lying next to skin that was long dead, and he groaned, kicked them away. He stood, brushed the remaining carcasses from his clothes. He saw Jakool and the others watching him; Jakool was frowning, clearly disappointed.
Behind them: a hunter skin that was darker than the others. Nolan stiffened, and he froze for just the tiniest of seconds.
Nolan cried out, pointed. Too late: the hunter was still in its skin, but it was breaking free. The dried, useless skin tore like ripped leather as its back arched out of its shell. Nolan could see webs of mucous fall away as its larger, fresher body pulled out from within the shell of its former self.
Jakool turned and cried out, too. There was no point being silent: they had been discovered. Now they needed to run.
“It's weak!” Jakool shouted. “Shoot it! Shoot it!”
Nolan knew instantly what he meant: as the hunter emerged from its old, dried husk its flesh was almost pink in its softness. His blaster would have no problems breaking through its new skin. Nolan pulled the gun free and aimed at a point directly below the million eyes that stared at him. He fired—again and again, he fired.
The blaster fire splashed into the emerging spider and the creature howled a sound of pain the likes of which Nolan had never heard. Grey blood sprayed in all directions as the spider danced where it stood, still half-submerged inside its own discarded exoskeleton.
Nolan fired again and the spider flipped upwards on half of its legs. Its other legs flayed through the air, angry as hell.
“Keep shooting!” Jakool shouted. Kareem and Truda were closest to the monster, and their feet were fused to the floor with fear. Nolan could see that the beast would collapse on top of them. “Keep shooting!”
Nolan fired three more times: each blaster shot hit its target. The monstrous spider kicked up, over-balanced. Kareem grabbed Truda's hand and pulled her backwards, away from where the beast would fall. The monster screamed again; a pitiful sound that was as monstrous as the rest of it.
Nolan didn't hesitate. He realised he was screaming each time he fired his blaster: “Die! Die! Die!” The spider spun around, leaking from every inch of its underside. Its legs flailed through the air, still trying desperately to cling to life.
A strand of web, as thick as Nolan's arm, shot out to the girders above them. The hunter moved frantically, tried to climb along its own web. Nolan's blaster fire hit the web and severed it; the spider crashed to the ground and threw a dozen empty skin-shells in all directions. Dust and debris flew everywhere.
“Shoot it!” Jakool screamed, even as the air around Nolan filled with blaster smoke and the purple-red glow of each charge pounded into the spider's flesh. “Shoot it!”
“It's dead,” Nolan said, and he stopped firing. “It's dead...” A silence settled over them, except for the throbbing of the reactor and the whump-whump-whump of the gravity-gyroscope as it spun endlessly on.
And, just on the edge of hearing, another noise: click-click-click... Nolan looked up towards the reactor. He could see the steel sarcophagus; it was devoid of anything covering it.
The spiders were coming down to eat them.
15
“Run!” Jakool said, his voice level and calm. Nolan looked to him, saw that the small man's face was anything but: there was panic written over every inch, every wrinkle and crevice. Jakool's eyes were wide, his lips pale, the hairs on the back of his neck stuck out like a frightened cat. He cried out again, and the terror slipped through, almost made his voice crack: “Run!”
Nolan didn't need to be told twice.
The four of them ran. They pushed through the dead spider skin, heading towards the far end of the chamber. There was no time for discussion, only for action—and the action was forward.
Above them, the spiders descended rapidly. They moved like a living carpet of ugliness, sliding over each other silently as they descended. Glowing beads of white silk could be seen as they spun their webs to descend. Nolan turned away from the monsters, looked for the exit—it was far away, beyond the water tank and the gravity-gyroscope.
Too far. They were never going to make it.
“Run!” Kareem's voice echoed Jakool's, but the terror was even more evident. He held Truda by the wrist, almost dragged her off her feet as he sprinted for the exit. Nolan was in the rear, too large to keep up with the smaller creatures. The other three moved fast—they were like rodents darting through a field. Nolan could feel his lungs burning already; he thought he could taste blood.
The first spider reached the ground. Nolan didn't need to look to know, he could feel it: the ground vibrated in sync with its feet as the heavy beast crashed after them. Broken chunks of discarded exoskeleton flew in all directions as the hunter broke the forest of dead skin apart. Nolan started screaming.
Above: movement. One of the hunters had shot out a web between the reactor and the massive water tank. It flew through the air between the two, landed on the water tank and scrambled for a purchase. The sides of the tank were too steep: the monster slipped and fell.
The water tank was between Nolan and the others. Nolan skidded to a stop, pulled out his blaster. Started shooting. Red-hot bursts of energy slammed into the dried skin between him and the spider. The skin burst into flames and smoke and started to crackle. The spider faced the threat, thought better of it: it turned and ran the other way.
“Jakool—watch out!” Nolan screamed, but there was nothing his friends could do but run—and the spider was quicker. “Jakool!”
Another glob of web—this time, the hunter had fired its web upwards, towards the gravity-gyroscope. Nolan fired his blaster at the hunter, hit it a few times to no effect. The massive spider didn't even notice it, then it leapt upwards, clinging to its new web. It soared over the three short humanoids.
Another burst of web, this time downwards—into Truda.
“No!” Kareem's scream was so painful it cut into Nolan's heart, but Nolan didn't have time to worry about them: he had just reached the fire he had started.
There was nothing for it but to dive into the flames. Behind him, the spiders were closing. The huntsman spiders were so damn fast. But the flames were directly in front of him, burning bright and hot: he saw a translucent exoskeleton burning like a demon. Nolan ran under the legs of the husk, slipped through the other side. Smoke billowed everywhere, he couldn't see. But he could hear—Truda's screams, Kareem's cries and the steady click-click-click of monsters coming for him. Nolan knew the hunters had reached the flames. He risked a look behind him: the flames had stopped them, at least for a moment. A black, hairy mass hung beyond the smoke and fire. Waiting.
“Truda!” Kareem screamed, directly in front. Nolan pushed towards the sound and the smoke cleared like a passing cloud: there was Kareem, right in front of him; above, Truda was screaming as the spider pulled her close, the web all aro
und her. Kareem saw Nolan, saw his blaster. His face darkened as he screamed: “give it to me!”
Kareem grabbed the blaster, aimed it high.
“Wait! You'll hit her—” Kareem fired. The blaster smacked into the slim line of web—a direct hit. Truda screamed again as she started to fall. She was too high up. When she hit the ground, she would die.
Out of nowhere, another shot of white web lanced towards her, held her fast. She fell and looped around the gravity-gyroscope, to where another hunter was waiting for her, fangs at the ready.
“No...” Kareem's voice trailed off to a frightened whimper. “No!”
Nolan didn't need to watch. He pushed past Kareem, didn't try to grab the blaster but kept running towards Jakool. Jakool was waiting for them, waving them on. He was near a series of ladders that would take them upwards, towards the nearest blast-door. The way out. Nolan risked a look behind him, saw that the spiders were still being held back by the flames, but the flames were advancing just as fast as the spiders had.
“Kareem! The flames!” Nolan shouted, but Kareem either didn't hear him or didn't care. His eyes were transfixed on Truda, who was still screaming. Nolan raised his head, saw that the girl was still flying through the air: the two spiders had both tried to claim her, and there were two lengths of white webbing caught around her body. Truda was held directly in the middle.
“I'm sorry Truda,” Kareem said, and Nolan knew what he was going to do. The short humanoid raised the blaster at Truda and fired. Nolan winced.
Kareem missed.
Truda screamed as the blast severed one of the lines. She started to fall towards the gravity-gyroscope again. The second hunter wasn't prepared to lose its prize: it leaped through the air with a strength that seemed impossible and grabbed Truda out of the air. Truda's scream was muffled but still audible as the spider soared upwards towards the gravity-gyroscope.
“Oh no...” Nolan whispered and he turned to Jakool standing next to a metal ladder. “Hold onto something!”
The spider holding Truda sailed into the gravity-gyroscope. Arcs of blue electric fire zapped all around it. There was a magnificently loud crack and a puff of smoke.
Nolan lunged forward, grabbed onto the ladder with both hands. Jakool looked at him as though he were crazy.
“Grab it, you sonofabitch!” Nolan shouted and he grabbed Jakool around the wrist. Jakool didn't understand what was about to happen, but Nolan did.
The gravity-gyroscope... Only a fool would step inside the field. Even a terrorist wouldn't do it. But the hunter didn't know, couldn't possibly know—and it was dead, out of control. It wouldn't even know what it had done.
The corpses of Truda and the spider hit the gravity-gyroscope at speed. The gyroscope wobbled, spun on a different access.
Nolan vomited as gravity waves slammed through him. Jakool cried out, felt his legs slide out from under him. He hung there, floating in space. All around them, the carcasses of dead spider skin crashed against the wall. The flames curled and licked the floor, then the walls, then the floor again. The huntsman spiders fell, too.
Everything fell.
“Kareem!” Jakool screamed, but Kareem was already gone—he hadn't been standing next to anything at all, and he had been swept away along with everything else, into the massive fire that was now burning against the wall. “Kareem!”
Nolan held on even tighter. He could see the gyroscope wobbling. The gravity switched again, and again, and again. Nolan screamed, even as vomit exploded out of his nose.
The chamber descended into chaos. The hunters were thrown in all directions, as were Nolan and Jakool. This was happening throughout the entire ship—they could hear distant crashes and explosions as the direction of gravity rapidly changed, out of control.
And still, the gyroscope kept wobbling.
“What's happening?” Jakool demanded.
“We're all going to die!” was all Nolan could think to say. He risked a look upwards, saw that the gyroscope was still wobbling and didn't look as though it was going to slow down. His gaze went further and he felt his heart tighten in his chest.
The massive water tank was swaying. Inside the transparent plexi-glass chamber he could see a miniature ocean slamming around, out of control. The dead spider that had been there before was gone, crushed into tiny pieces too small to see.
The water hit the sides of the tank with a whoomph that echoed throughout the cavern. A crack appeared in the glass. It spread.
“No...” Nolan found that his voice was cracking, on the edge of madness. If the water tank broke... “No...”
Another crack, and a third. The gravity-gyroscope wobbled and spun again and that was too much—the water tank exploded with a thundering crash. Water burst out everywhere.
Nolan and Jakool were now hanging in the air, their feet dangling with the floor now a wall and the new floor too far below them. Fire and smoke were everywhere, and so were the massive spiders. The water crashed into everything; Nolan hung on for dear life. He held Jakool's wrist so tightly that his short friend cried out in pain.
The water hit the fire and the hunters. Smoke turned to steam; bulkheads bowed under the pressure. The hiss of extinguishing fire was louder than anything else in the cavern. For a moment, it felt as though the universe had been consumed by burning hot steam; curls of vapour mixed with tongues of fire and coughing, acrid smoke. Nolan shut his eyes but the madness burned through his eye-lids. He could see it all: the hunters, the dead, the broken husks and burned shells. So many ways to die in the one cavern, and they swirled around his head, out of control.
And then... Stillness.
“Wha... What happened?” Jakool asked as he hung from directly below Nolan. The floor was still a wall, and Nolan knew it was going to stay that way: the gravity-gyroscope was spinning steadily now, but it was at an angle that was ninety degrees to anything normal. Nolan groaned.
“We have to get out of here,” Nolan said. Already, he could see movement: hunters swimming in the water, reaching for the new walls. There was still food for them to eat. “Can you climb up?”
“I'll try,” Jakool said, and he reached out, grabbed onto Nolan and used him as a climbing wall. Nolan grit his teeth as Jakool climbed over him, reached the ladder. “Okay.”
“Keep moving. Through that door,” Nolan ordered, and the two of them swung hand-over-hand towards the door that was nearest. Not far, and it was open. Beyond: there was light. Nolan didn't dare relax, not even a little. If there was light, then the reactor was still running. They weren't dead yet. That was something, at least.
But running for how long?
Jakool reached the doorway, looked through it. Satisfied, he hauled Nolan up so they were both lying on the new floor, exhausted and wet and panting.
“We can't stay here,” Jakool said. Below them, the hunters were still coming.
“No,” Nolan agreed and they slipped through the doorway, slammed the button that would close the door. Nolan almost cried out in joy as the door slammed shut, sealing the monsters in the chamber within. There would be more, of course, but for now they were safe.
Safe... Or as safe as they were going to get.
16
The two of them moved through the ship: an alien world. The lighting was now coming from the side, and it cast odd shadows. The layout was completely different to what Nolan remembered; they moved across the walls, not the floor. Everything had been twisted ninety degrees. They had to watch out for doors and cabinets under their feet, as well as vast, empty shafts above. They moved fast, out of necessity: they had lost the blaster when they had lost Kareem; if they came across a hunter now, they were as good as dead.
But the speed made Nolan uncomfortable. He had known this ship like the back of his hand, and now it had been taken from him. He was lucky that the gyroscope had stopped at an angle that was close to ninety degrees—there was some leaning, a little to the side and forward. It wasn't enough to make them slip, but it was enough to th
row him off balance occasionally.
“This way,” Jakool said. If the little man had been thrown off by the change in gravity, he had adapted remarkably well.
“How do you know where we are going?” Nolan asked him.
“I don't,” Jakool said in response. Then: “this way.”
Nolan wasn't sure if the humanoid was playing with him. He said nothing, kept moving. It occurred to him that there were vast sections of the ship that they would never be able to access: some of the room had been very wide, and now they were tall, instead. They would need rope or a ladder to access those sections. They had neither.
“Wait,” Jakool whispered. Nolan came to a stop, tried to see past his friend. He couldn't see much at all; everything was dark. But there was a shape in front of them.
A hunter.
Nolan froze, wanted to run. Jakool was immobile, as still as a statue. Nolan wanted to turn and bolt backwards, but Jakool had the experience with these monsters and knew what to do. Nolan resisted the urge and stayed still.
Slowly, Jakool walked towards the shape.
“What are you doing?” Nolan hissed, but Jakool didn't answer him. He approached the shape and grunted.
“It is safe: it is dead.”
“Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” Jakool said. Nolan looked upwards, saw that there was an open doorway directly above them. The monster had landed on top of a closed door. Nolan thought he knew this section of the ship: one of the cross corridors that headed from port to starboard. The spider had probably fallen all the way; if this door had been opened, it would have travelled the entire width of the ship.
Nolan approached it, stood as close as Jakool did. Almost on top of it. The spider was on its back, its legs curled around itself. It certainly looked dead.
Jakool kicked it.
The hunter spun around, its legs kicked out towards the little man. It hadn't been dead at all, just stunned. Jakool cried out, tried to jump backwards. Too slow—the spider grabbed him with one of its legs.
Nightmare Ship: Space Exploration Thriller Page 8