by Taki Drake
Brechal had swallowed twice more, then did what he could to pull himself together. He had tried to focus on Tina and avoid thinking of the terror. Then he looked again at the creatures. “Whatever they are, they can’t hurt us,” he said. “They’re asleep or dead. Nothing has changed. Let’s get back to work.”
As he had spoken, he had seen the vast deposits of fresh Lucen all around the disgusting things. He had understood then what Lucen was and found himself laughing out loud despite the lingering fear. The psychoactive substance that had spawned industries around the galaxy was nothing more than the waste product of these monsters. Lucen was monster shit.
No wonder it smelled so revolting.
On any other day, Tina might have asked him what was so funny, and then she would have been laughing alongside him. Instead, she had responded only to his earlier suggestion. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Tina had said, her voice quivering with fear.
Brechal’s laughter had immediately evaporated. “Huh? What?”
“Look. That one. It’s moving!”
She had been right. As Brechal watched, the monster heaved its great, translucent bulk about, like an oversized walrus flopping along the shore. Its movements were clumsy, but not at all slow.
It didn’t have any eyes that Brechal could see, and yet he had felt like it was looking about. Searching for something.
And then, as if to confirm his theory, he felt a shiver of fear crawl up his spine.
Brechal was a tall and massive man, filled with capability and strength. In his life until then, there hadn’t been much that he’d ever worried about. He could generally find a way to do whatever he needed to get done, and he’d met few who would even think of standing in his way.
There wasn’t much in the galaxy as a whole that he feared.
But when he sensed this blind, writhing monster’s attention light on him, it was as if every fear he’d ever experienced was suddenly magnified ten thousand times. The terror he’d felt when gazing on these monsters was nothing compared to this. It seared his brain and flooded every nerve ending he had with agony. It was like being flayed alive, and his raw flesh dipped in acid. It was like being strung out in the outer layer of the sun.
It was like nothing he’d ever felt, and all he could do was crumple to the floor and wail and shriek until his throat was bleeding and raw, and then scream some more.
Chapter 5 - Flight
How long Brechal had lain on the floor of the chamber, screaming his lungs out, he didn’t know. Long enough for it to feel like forever. Short enough that his heart managed to hold itself together without bursting from sheer panic.
Then, long after he had decided that it would never end, he had felt something extending through the wall of pain and fear. A warmth, like a balm that spread over his spirit. A feeling of quiet, of comfort and love that dampened the soul-searing terror that the merest glance from that monster had triggered.
It wasn’t enough to block out the horror completely. But it was enough to bring hope back into his life. To allow him to think. To enable him once more to move.
He had opened his eyes to see Tina kneeling above him, her hands pressing gently on the flesh over his heart.
She had been concentrating fiercely. Sweat was beading on her brow. Even though she still wore the seeming of the angry woman whose identity she had stolen, to Brechal, she had been the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. She seemed to radiate peace and tranquility as if she was a balm for any torment.
Brechal had felt that he would endure anything just to be there with her at that moment. Even though he had been still awash with lingering dread, aching as if he’d been belted all over by hundreds of hammers, he had grinned.
Tina must have noticed. She had quirked a half-grin and return. “Welcome back. Can you move?”
Brechal had nodded. Heaving his bulk up from the floor, he had been unable to wonder, “How come –” he had started, but Tina had not needed him to finish his question.
“I’m telepathic, remember? Wouldn’t be much good if I couldn’t protect myself against irrational fears, would I?” She had shrugged. Her tone had been flippant, but there was exhaustion behind it. The effort she’d spent had been huge. “I just helped do the same for you.”
Before Brechal could voice his thanks, the silence had been shattered by an ear-splitting screech that sounded like the tearing of metal. It was so loud that he had cringed and clamped his hands over his ears.
“What in the hell?” he had asked, but he had already known. It was the monster, giving voice to its rage or pain. Or perhaps the noise had been no more than a casual greeting within its loathsome species. Brechal had not known or cared. It had been loud and clashing, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near it.
“Come on,” he had said gruffly, irritated and wary both at once. “Let’s get out of here!” He had gripped Tina by the arm and turned to go.
They took just a single step when there was a thunderous crash that shook the whole chamber. Brechal and Tina had staggered and clutched at each other for balance.
“Now what?” Tina had gasped, not really asking the question, but rather expressing her disbelief.
The wall in which Brechal had made his hole was covered in cracks. Brechal knew what had happened. The monster had thrown itself against the wall below them with enough force to almost break it. One more attack like that and the wall would doubtless give way.
Would the monster then be able to mount the rubble and come after them?
It was an awful question, and one to which Brechal had not wanted an answer.
The air had reverberated again with the alien’s screech. Brechal had not waited for a second attack. He had gripped Tina’s arm even harder and started to run, ignoring the half-full sack of Lucen entirely.
<<<>>>
They didn’t get very far. Before they even made it to the concrete platform where the elevator car had stopped, they were confronted by a pair of security guards. Just like the one who had admitted them to the dome, these were in full armor, black and shiny with helmets that obscured their faces. It was impossible to tell anything about them save for the fact that they were each more than a head shorter than Brechal. They might have been twins. They appeared identical to each other and the guard up above.
Perhaps if Brechal and Tina hadn’t been running, they might not have drawn suspicion. Or maybe the ungodly screech of the monsters had already attracted the attention. Conceivably they would have stopped Brechal and Tina in any event.
Either way, the guard on the left raised their hand and spoke in an electronically modulated voice. “Halt!”
Brechal had snarled in irritation under his breath. He had no intention of halting. He had intended to keep running as fast as he could and crash through these two. Perversely, he had wondered if perhaps they were androids of some kind, rather than men and women in armor. Looking back at his earlier self, the bartender wondered how he could have been so stupid.
The guard on the right had said nothing, but both guards had unlimbered their blasters and taken careful aim.
Even so, it had been still tempting. Brechal was nothing if not stubborn, and he had been both afraid of the monsters behind him and annoyed by the guards in front. If he’d been by himself, Brechal might have continued on and trusted to luck to keep him alive. But he wasn’t by himself. He had Tina with him, and she was vulnerable. The thought of her being shot because of his willfulness was not something he wanted to face.
They both slowed to a halt within meters of the guards, and Brechal and the guards all started to talk at once.
“State your intentions,” said one of the guards in a flat, emotionless voice. It was hard to tell which one had spoken.
“You have to get out of here!” Brechal had said. “You have to get everyone out of here! There are monsters!”
The other guard was speaking more quietly, calling the incident in. “Security personnel Rogers 01 and Housley 06 reporting. Two workers
found running in off-limits location, appear in distress. Scanning for identity now. Uncertain motivation.”
Neither of them appeared to have any intention of listening to Brechal’s words.
Frustrated and angry, Brechal had felt his anger rise over his fear. Without conscious thought, he had curled his hands into fists. The fear generated by the creatures they had found still lingered. As far as Brechal was concerned, they had no time to deal with these guards. He would have been happy to bash them out of his way. But before he could do anything rash, Tina had gripped his arm.
“Let me try.”
Brechal’s first instinct had been to step in front of her, to protect her from the guards. But he had known that in this situation, her telepathy might be of use. So instead, he had throttled back his anger, nodded once, and stayed out of her way.
“Listen to me,” she had said confidently, and Brechal could almost sense the effort she put into her telepathic coercion. “This mine is not safe. There are creatures here, monsters. They project fear and terror – ”
She didn’t get any further. For the third time, the monster behind them gave voice to an ear-shattering screech. Again, there was a massive crashing sound, and Brechal had no doubt that this time, the beast had broken through the wall.
The effect on the guards was immediate. In unison, they crouched down as if under fire, not out of any noticeable fear, but out of trained reflex. Then they looked at each other in a way that Brechal would have found hilarious at any other time. They had seemed perplexed.
Brechal took the opportunity to start forward, but the guard on the right still held his blaster.
“Don’t move!”
Brechal had snarled in anger, but stayed where he was.
The guard on the right spoke into his helmet. “Security personnel Rogers 01 and Housley 06 update. Unknown disturbance. Two workers under control. Investigating.” Flat, emotionless. No fear or anything in the electronic voice.
The guard on the left had also drawn his blaster. Unlike his companion, his was aimed down the tunnel, towards the disturbance.
“If there is anyone there,” the guard said, “show yourself! Do it now!”
“You don’t want it to do that,” Brechal had begun, but the guard on the right interrupted.
“Be quiet!”
Then, for the second time in just a few minutes, Brechal had been hit by a tidal wave of panic and fear. This time he had known what it was, and he still had Tina’s defense against it in place. Even so, it was so intense that his knees buckled, and he had cried out in pain.
Somehow, he knew that the monster had made its way into the chamber where he and Tina had been harvesting the Lucen.
The guards fared as badly, but surprisingly not worse. Perhaps they had some protection against such attacks built into their suits. If they did, it wasn’t sufficient to block it entirely. Both guards clamped their hands against the sides of their heads and groaned in agony.
Only Tina was mostly proof against the monster’s telepathic assault, and even she wasn’t entirely immune. She screwed her face up into a grimace and reached for Brechal’s hand.
“Come on!” she had called, with a hint of desperation in her ordinarily calm voice.
Brechal was willing. He wanted nothing more than to leave. But the guard on the right was up to the challenge. Despite the mental assault, he managed to fire his blaster over Brechal’s head. The shot was close enough that Brechal felt the warmth of it and could smell the ozone over the fetid stench of the monster behind them.
“Do not move!” the guard bellowed. “You will get no further warning!”
Once more the massive creature voiced its horrific bellow, this time closer. Brechal had spun around and was appalled to see that the monster was only meters away and making its ungainly way closer. It was monstrous, a heaving translucent wall of quivering flesh, a nightmare of frightful proportions that almost filled the entire tunnel.
“Well, if you aren’t going to let us go, then at least use your damned weapons! Shoot that thing!” Brechal had bellowed. Remember the fear and panic of that moment, the bartender clutched both hands on the edge of the bar, feeling the memory of that time slam adrenaline into his system and the wordless reassurance of the BHB as it tried to support him.
That help eased the memory slightly, like a softening of an ache. Through the film of supportive understanding, Brechal watched as his words seemed to get through to both guards. The other guard had managed to gather his wits together for long enough to take aim, and then both guards were firing at the creature again and again.
Bolts of sizzling fire had scorched the air like angry hornets buzzing all around Brechal and Tina. He had pulled her to the ground for fear of stray bolts, covering her smaller frame with his bulk, and not even considering making a dash for freedom.
The air had grown hot and filled with acrid, foul-smelling smoke. The monster was screaming, and Brechal hoped for one moment that the guards’ weapons were up to the task. But a single glance had dashed that hope beyond any thought of repair. The bolts of energy were finding their target and leaving deep scorch marks in the monster’s flesh. But the scorch marks quickly faded away into nothing.
It had been as if the guards were firing into a barrel of water.
They didn’t give up. Perhaps they had still been talking, updating whoever was listening to the situation. If the guards were, Brechal had not been able to hear them. All he heard was the guard on the left uttering a primal scream of aggression and rage, before advancing on the monster, firing repeatedly.
If their reactions and responses up until that point hadn’t done it, that simple act of bravery or madness was enough to convince Brechal that it was a person under the armor and not just a machine. No machine would be so foolish. A machine would merely fire as coldly and as efficiently as possible, and calculate the best odds for victory.
Brechal had accepted with a cold certainty that there was nothing that he could do to save the man from the beast. All he could do was watch.
Tina had tried anyway. “Stop! What are you doing?” she yelled, her voice full of incredulous disbelief.
And then the monster had lunged with devastating speed and flexibility. Surprisingly, it had not crushed the guard as Brechal had expected. Instead, it scooped him up and swallowed him whole.
Such was the transparency of the creature that Brechal could easily see where the guard lodged in its throat.
The horror of that moment flashed through the bartender’s body like acid on skin, dropping him toward the ground. Oblivious to the BHB, the others exclaiming in concern, and the movement of Alastair and Wynn toward him, Brechal started to collapse, only to find that the BHB had caught him in a supportive grip, cushioned by an oversize chair that rose abruptly from the floor.
Brechal was lost to where he was. His eyes were filled with the horror of that time, and the searing sight of the ingested guard. The other guard had stopped firing. He had given a strangled cry of pure terror and turned to run. But he had not gotten very far. While their attention had been wholly taken up by the monster in front of them, a second one had made its way into the tunnel behind them.
Concealed by the haze of smoke in the air, the remaining guard had not noticed the second enemy until it was too late. He was also swallowed whole, leaving Brechal and Tina shocked and alone. Weaponless. Stuck between two monsters that all but blocked the tunnel on both ends. Taking turns blasting the air with their hideous, resounding cries, they were slowly advancing on Brechal and Tina.
Dimly, the bartender could feel Wynn’s hands on his arm, Madrik’s grip on his shoulders. Words were being said, but he could not hear them. He was back in that desperate, smoky corridor, with their defenders dead and his love beside him.
Slowly, Brechal had risen to his feet. He had never been so afraid. Not for himself, but for Tina, who also was standing. It was his fault she was there. The plan for this caper had been his. And now it looked as if they would
both die here, swallowed whole by these obscene, loathsome beasts, just like the guards before them. Brechal’s heart had pounded so hard that his chest had hurt, just like it did now.
Chapter 6 - Hole Between Worlds
Brechal had pulled Tina towards him and hugged her as tightly as he could without breaking her. Only after a while did he realize she had been speaking.
“They’re still alive,” she was saying. “The guards. I can sense them. They’re being kept alive within those things. They’re feeding on them. But not on their flesh. It’s their fear, their horror, and dread that sustains the monsters.” She had whimpered then, out of fear or hopelessness, a sound that cut deeply into Brechal’s heart. “I think … I think they’ll take years to die.”
Such a fate was too awful to contemplate. Brechal had looked around, seeking some weapon with which he might end both Tina’s life and his own before the monsters could get to them. But there was nothing. Both of the guards still held their blasters, separated by the bodies of the monsters from Brechal. Those were the only weapons around but rendered useless. Briefly, Brechal remembered hoping that one of them would fire, killing the creatures from the inside out, but neither guard was shooting.
“I’m sorry,” Brechal had muttered. “I’m so sorry.” His heart had been aching with an unbearable sadness, one that traveled through time to rip his soul with fresh wounds. This was his fault, his responsibility. He had failed and condemned his love to torment. Both monsters were a few meters away and would be upon them in seconds.
Then, sounding surprisingly calm, Tina asked, “What’s that?”
It had taken Brechal a moment to see what she was talking about. He had to blink to clear his eyes of the smoke that still lingered and of the tears that were forming in each corner. When he could see what she was looking at, he had thought it no more than a shadow. Perplexed, he had closed his eyes and then looked again and was astonished by what he saw. Such things just weren’t possible. And yet … just maybe it was.
Perhaps the blaster fire had opened it. Or maybe it was a natural occurrence, and sheer chance had brought it to Brechal and Tina at their time of greatest need. Either way, there was a hole in the side of the tunnel.