Alien Sky

by Daniel Arenson

  Romy flew back toward Riff and bit her lip. "I think I hurt a leaf." She looked around and gulped. "Do you think anyone saw? Am I going to go to jail? I can't go to jail. I can't! Orange looks horrible on me."

  Riff shook his head. "Nobody saw. We keep going."

  They kept walking through the forest, climbing over and crawling under coiling roots. The air was so hot and humid Riff could barely breathe. Iridescent beetles fluttered about, lavender and azure. Every few steps, he had to pause while Romy tore through cobwebs with her claws and pitchfork. They kept climbing the mountainside, heading toward the crest, and soon Riff was winded. He thought the mountain would never end. Still he saw no sign of Steel and Nova, and even the sound of the Dragon Huntress faded. He heard nothing but the rustling trees, the splash of a nearby waterfall, and the bustling birds and insects.

  "Come on, slowpoke!" Romy hovered a foot above the surface, wings beating like a hummingbird's. "You're slowing me down."

  Riff wiped sweat off his brow and spat. "Shut it. First of all, you're from Hell and used to the heat. Second, you're flying. Third . . . shut up."

  She flew down toward him, grabbed his hand, and tugged. "Come on! I want to see the spider eggs. Can I have one? Can I adopt just one baby spider?"

  He glowered. "Romy! No. For pity's sake, no. You saw what they're like as adults. We burn them all."

  She pouted. "But I want one! I want a pet. I want one I want one I want—"

  "Romy, shut it!"

  She crossed her arms and turned away from him. They kept moving up the mountainside until finally, when Riff was wheezing and soaked in sweat, they reached the top.

  Oh stars above.

  Riff's breath died and his heart sank.

  A carpet of cobwebs covered the mountaintop, hiding every last tree and boulder. Upon the gossamer curtain gleamed countless eggs like dewdrops, each as large as Riff's fist. Some were white, others lavender, a few azure flecked with gold. They shone as bright as jewels.

  "Pretty," Romy whispered, then bit her lip when Riff glared at her.

  He looked around him, seeking the others. He saw no sign of Nova and Steel. Far above, he could see the Dragon Huntress. The warship's plasma gun was so massive that if fired, it would burn down the forest along with the eggs. It was up to little, handheld Ethel now.

  "All right, Romster." Riff hefted his handgun. "Let's get to work. Ready to burn?"

  She nodded and pressed a button on her pitchfork. Streams of fire spurted out from the prongs—an upgrade she had just installed a few days ago. "I'm a demon. I'm always ready to burn things."

  They took another step toward the hive of eggs and raised their weapons.

  The web parted.

  With shrieks, a dozen spiders leaped out from the rent, flying toward Riff and Romy.

  They cried out and fired their weapons.

  The blasts washed against the spiders, doing the creatures no harm. These ones seemed different from the spiders in the forest—slicker, their bodies bristly with deep purple fur, their eyes red. Their green wings beat, and they soared high above Riff and Romy.

  Females, he thought. Spider nurses.

  He fired his gun. Romy screamed at his side, blasting fire from her pitchfork prongs. The inferno washed over the spiders. The creatures shrieked and turned tail, and for an instant Riff dared to hope they were fleeing.

  Then the alien arachnids blasted out sticky, foul webs.

  Riff fired his plasma, tearing holes through the cobwebs, but the bulk of the net fell onto him. The gossamer clung to his body, sticky, acidic, tightening across him. He fired blindly, but the damn web wrapped around his gun, yanking it from his hand.

  "Captain!" Romy cried. He couldn't see her, could see only white strands, then a glimpse of purple as the spiders descended.

  The aliens clattered and hissed. Legs grabbed Riff and hoisted him up, and fear flooded his belly. He struggled madly, trying to kick, to grab his gun again, even to bite through the net, but could not. Between strands of cobwebs, he saw the world spinning, saw the red eyes of the aliens, and then more strands wrapped around him. He spun madly like a spool.

  They're wrapping me in more cobwebs. They're encasing me.

  "Captain!" Romy shouted again, voice muffled.

  He tried to shout back, but webs entered his mouth, sticky, silencing him. More cobwebs wrapped around his head. Darkness fell across him, and he saw and heard nothing more.

  * * * * *

  "Wait." Nova grabbed Steel's arm and held him back. A smile stretched across her face. "Let him hang for a while. Let him sweat. That'll teach him for not letting me bring my grenades."

  They crouched behind a boulder—a gladiator in a golden catsuit, her whip in hand, and a knight in armor, holding his sword. Before them, across the mountaintop, several spiders were weaving two cocoons of cobwebs.

  Steel stiffened. His armor clanked. "Riff and Romy are in there. They need us."

  Nova grinned. "Exactly."

  The gaunt knight groaned. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

  She nodded. "Seeing Riff and the demon trussed up like hams? Better than Christmas."

  "Riff does boss us around too much sometimes. And Romy, well . . . is Romy." Steel stared around the boulder at the two cocoons. The spiders were now carrying the gossamer bundles across their web. "I suppose we could let them miss us for a while longer before—"

  A screech tore through the knight's words.

  Nova spun around to see two spiders scurrying up the mountainside toward them. She leaped and swung her whip, blasting out bolts of electricity, and knocked one spider down. Steel rose to his feet and pointed his sword toward the second arachnid. Light gathered across the blade, then blasted out and seared the alien dead.

  Nova yawned. "All right, let's go free the two. They have the plasma packs anyway, which we need for burning all those eggs, since somebody didn't let me bring grenades." She gestured toward the mountaintop where thousands of eggs gleamed upon the web. "We don't want to be here when these things hatch."

  Gladiator and knight moved across the mountaintop, legs entangling in the web. It was slow work. Every step was a sticky mess. Steel had to keep swinging his sword and Nova her whip, cutting a path through the cobwebs.

  The spiders ahead, the ones carrying the two bundles of gossamer, saw them. The creatures spun around and dropped the cocoons. From inside the bundles, Riff and Romy cried out in pain. The spiders screeched and came racing toward Nova and Steel, leaving the two silky balls to roll down the mountainside.

  "Game's on," Nova said. "Bet I can kill more."

  Steel thrust Solflare. A beam of light flew from the blade, slamming into one spider. The creature fell and writhed. "By my honor, you will never win."

  She swung her whip, lashing out electricity, and sent another spider crashing down. "Like hell!"

  The pair kept advancing, blasting out light and lightning. The spiders squealed. More flew from all around, crashing down, screaming as they died. One turned its backside toward Nova and blasted out a sticky net. She swung her whip, slicing through the cobwebs, sending strands raining down. Another web flew toward Steel. The knight cut through it with his sword, scattering gossamer.

  Finally, with another few swings of the whip, Nova killed the last spider. She spat and wiped her hands against her pants.

  "Done. I count nine spiders to me, six to you."

  Steel bristled. "Lying goes against all codes of chivalry. I count eighteen spiders felled by my blade."

  "What?" Nova yowled. "There weren't even eighteen spiders here! Count." She pointed at the corpses. "One. Two. Uhm . . . seven? Carrying the one . . ." She tapped her chin, then groaned. "In any case, far more have whip marks on them than sword cuts."

  Steel glowered. "You do not know how to concede defeat. Nor count, apparently."

  "Because I never lose! Steel, damn it." She placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him. "You'll have to admit that a woman—yes, an actual woman!—beat
you. That I'm a greater warrior than a knight. That I'm the greatest warrior in the cosmos. That . . . Steel? Steel, what are you looking at? Why are you pointing your sword at me?"

  The knight was pale. "Nova, let's just say . . . whoever kills this new one wins."

  Slowly, Nova spun around.

  She felt the blood drain from her face.

  "Fragging aardvarks," she whispered.

  A new spider came lumbering up the mountain toward her. It made the dead spiders around her—corpses as large as cows—seem small as arachnids from Earth. The spider ahead of Nova was larger than the HMS Dragon Huntress. Its legs soared like the columns of cathedrals. Its mandibles clanked like the engines of starships. Its bloated body dragged behind it, shimmering and translucent like glass, full of countless spider eggs that shone in the sunlight. Human skeletons hung around the spider's neck in a macabre necklace, clattering, swaying. The great spider blinked eight eyes, each as large as a watermelon. Blue eyes. Wise eyes. Eyes almost like a human's.

  Nova gulped. "Let's kill it together and call it a tie."

  "For Sol!" Steel cried and charged toward the enemy, sword flashing.

  "For spider guts!" Nova cried, the only battle cry that came to her mind, and ran with him. She lashed her whip, blasting out sparks.

  The whip's lightning and the sword's light slammed into the alien ahead.

  The blasts scattered off the spider's glassy skin and shot back toward Nova and Steel.

  Nova screamed and rolled. Her own bolt of lightning slammed into the ground beside her. She jumped up, hissed, and swung her whip again. More lightning flew toward the glass spider, only to bounce back toward her. She leaped aside, narrowly dodged the bolt, and tangled her legs in more cobwebs. She cursed, struggling to free herself. At her side, Steel struggled in his own patch of webs.

  The massive spider stepped toward them, dragging its abdomen, towering above them. Its saliva oozed down its fangs. Its blue eyes stared in hatred. Nova grimaced and knew she was going to die.

  * * * * *

  Riff groaned, encased in the cocoon of cobwebs. He heard his friends scream in the distance. They needed him. He writhed madly, struggling to free himself, but only rolled farther down the mountain.

  "Wee!" Romy cried at his side. Through the strands, Riff saw the demon's cocoon roll alongside his. "Faster, faster!"

  "Romy!" he shouted, voice muffled. "Damn it, Romy, use your claws! Use your fangs! Tear your way out."

  The demon whooped. "But I'm having fun! Roll faster, Riff! Race you!"

  The cocoons kept tumbling down the mountainside, banging over boulders and roots, moving farther and farther from the crest. Soon Riff couldn't even hear Nova and Steel scream.

  The woman I love. And my brother. Riff grimaced, tugging madly at the sticky silk encasing him. They're dying and I can't help them.

  "Romy, if you tear yourself out, I'll buy you that dinosaur toy you wanted."

  She gasped, still rolling downhill beside him. "The purple one? That talks when you tickle it?"

  "Yes, now tear yourself out! Use your claws."

  "But it has to be the real Tickle-Me-T-Rex, not one of the knockoffs."

  "The real one, fine!" Riff shouted

  "Can I have the Hug-Me-Hedgehog too?"

  "Yes, now do it!"

  Glancing between the strands of his own cocoon, he saw Romy tear into the webs encasing her. Her claws sliced like knives. Her fangs tore through the cobwebs like a famished Tasmanian devil. Soon the demon kicked off the last silky strands, stretched out her wings, and flew toward Riff. With a few slices of her claws, she tore him free.

  "Buy me the dinosaur!" She bounced around. "Buy me buy me buy . . ."

  He ignored her and ran. He ran faster than he ever had, racing up the hill, stumbling over roots, leaping up and running again. Sweat washed over him. His heart thudded. His fist shook around his gun's handle. Romy flew beside him, all the while babbling on about her toy.

  Finally, wheezing, Riff reached the mountaintop.

  That wheezing breath died.

  A towering spider, large as a starship, loomed over Nova and Steel. The gladiator and the knight stood trapped in a gossamer field, writhing but unable to free their legs. The giant spider's body seemed made of glass; Riff could see thousands of eggs inside its belly. The creature leaned down, mouth opening wide to consume the two people Riff loved most in the world.

  Riff fired his gun.

  The plasma blast flew through the air and slammed into the spider's head.

  The giant alien squealed. The plasma cascaded off it, bouncing down to burn a hole into cobwebs below. Its blue eyes narrowed with rage, turning to stare at him. Those eyes seemed almost humanlike.

  "She's intelligent," Riff whispered. "She's not just an animal."

  I can't kill her, he realized. How could he kill an intelligent animal? How could—

  As the spider came walking toward him, he saw human skeletons draped around her neck. He gulped.

  "Yeah, I'm going to kill it."

  He fired his gun again. But once more, the plasma bounced off the creature's glassy head. The bolt shot back toward Riff, and he leaped aside. Romy flew up with a wail. The plasma burned a hole into the cobwebs around them.

  The glass spider opened her mouth and let out a long, hoarse hiss that coalesced into words.

  "Die . . ." The voice was like wind in caves, like the whispers of ghosts, like the call of death itself. "Die, human . . . Die . . ."

  She came walking toward Riff on stilt-like legs.

  Romy wailed and hid behind a tree.

  Riff sneered, raced forward, and grabbed one of the spider eggs that lay in the cobwebs. He tore the gleaming orb free. The mother spider screeched. Riff raised the egg above his head and pointed his plasma gun at it.

  "Freeze!" he said. "Freeze or baby spider gets it!"

  Inwardly, he sighed. Another entry to my ever-expanding "Words I never thought I'd utter" list.

  The glass spider screamed. Saliva sprayed from her mouth. Her eyes blazed with hatred.

  But she froze.

  I have to get her away from Nova and Steel. I have to save them.

  "Want your egg back?" Riff shouted.

  The spider opened her jaws wide, screaming. Her breath blasted against Riff, scented of corpses. Strings of saliva dangled between her teeth. The human skeletons jangled around her neck.

  "You want this?" Riff shouted again. "Go get it! Fetch!"

  He tossed the egg as hard as he could, hurling it across the mountaintop.

  The glass spider squealed and spun around. Her abdomen swung, scraping across the cobwebs. As she began to chase the egg, Riff stared, eyes narrowed.

  A slit yawned open on the spider's backside, leading to a canal, just narrow enough to stop the eggs inside from spilling out.

  Riff aimed his gun.

  He closed one eye.

  "Burn, space scum," he whispered . . . and pulled the trigger.

  His aim was true. His plasma blasted forth, hit the slit, and roared into the spider's abdomen.

  Inside the creature, the fire raged, kindling the eggs. These eggs were smaller than those already on the mountainside, brittle, flammable. Flames raged inside the spider's glass abdomen, consuming the eggs, and the creature screamed.

  Romy stepped up toward Riff and gasped. "You shot her in the bum!"

  He grumbled. "It wasn't her bum. It's the stomach."

  The demon covered her mouth. "Bum-shooter! Oh, that's low, Riff. Even for you."

  "It's not her bum!"

  He fired again. Again. More plasma streamed forward and entered the spider. An inferno raged inside her body, streaming through her belly, along her legs, in her mouth, blasting out of her eyes.

  With a cry of rage, the giant spider collapsed.

  The corpse slammed down onto the mountaintop, burning.

  The fire began to spread across the cobwebs cloaking the mountain.

  Across the web, the laid egg
s began to expand and crack.

  As the shells shattered, little spiders emerged, only for the fire to grab them.

  Riff grimaced and ran. He raced through the flames, leaped over one of the fallen spider's legs, and headed toward Nova and Steel.

  "Nova!" Riff cried. He reached her, leaned down, and began tugging cobwebs off her legs. "Nova, I'm here to save you."

  "What?" Her eyes widened and she spat. "Spaceshit, Riff. I saved you."

  He groaned, tugging one of her legs loose. "What are you talking about?"

  "When the spiders had you! I shot them dead."

  Riff rolled his eyes. "Little good that did me." He yanked her leg free, then the other one.

  Once she was free, he turned toward Steel and helped the knight extricate himself.

  "I thank you, brother." Steel bowed his head. "You fought nobly. You saved us."

  "No he didn't!" Nova growled and stamped her feet, only entangling them in more cobwebs. "He didn't save a damn thing. He got lucky, that's all. A lucky shot, and besides, I had already wounded the spider, and—"

  "Will you shut it?" Riff said. "The whole damn mountain is burning."

  He stared around. Flames raged across the mountaintop. All around, the eggs were popping.

  He grabbed Nova's wrist and tugged her toward him.

  "Hey, let go!" she said.

  He ignored her and spoke into her communicator. "Giga! Giga, do you read me? We need those cables! Fish us up!"

  The android's voice rose through the speakers, chipper as always. "Happy to comply!"

  Engines roared above. Riff looked up to see the HMS Dragon Huntress flying down toward them. Cables spooled out from its airlock. Riff grabbed one cable and attached it to his harness. Nova and Steel did the same.

  "Where's Romy?" Riff said. "Where's the damn demon? Romy!"

  He saw nothing but flames around him.

  Above, the Dragon Huntress began to rise, pulling him off the ground.

  "Romy!" Riff shouted, looking around. "Damn it, where are you?"

  He saw no sign of the demon, and he just hoped that, as a being of Hell, she could survive the flames. The cables were spooling up, tugging him, Nova, and Steel toward the starship's airlock.