Arach

by C. M. Simpson

  We hurried out into the hall, Askavor scuttling as fast as his eight legs would take him, and me fast-trotting to keep up, with Tovy buzzing along behind like he was out for a stroll through the park. If it hadn’t been for Askavor leading the way, I’d have been lost… until I found the first arach body lying headless in the hallway.

  After that, it would have been an easy matter to follow the path the vespis had taken. There were six more bodies leading up the corridor to Mack’s quarters, and the wasp-folk were finalizing the battle with another three.

  “Get the door, Cutter.”

  Like I needed Tek to tell me what to do.

  But getting the door involved going back into the ship’s systems, and I didn’t know what would be waiting for me.

  “We’re here,” Rohan said, and I heard Cascade’s wuff of agreeance.

  Before I could say anything, Askavor spoke across me.

  “You will guard the link,” he said. “I will run interference for her. Here.”

  I felt him open a new link in my head, and knelt down on the floor. The last thing I really wanted was to fall over just when I might be able to get Mack out of the shit he was in.

  “Just get the door unlocked, Cutter.” Tens’ voice was like a slap in the face, but it got me where I needed to go.

  I stopped hesitating on the edge of the link Askavor had created, and headed into the ship’s systems. Fortunately, this time I didn’t have very far to go. Askavor had accessed the system closest the door, and the controls were easy to find, despite the winding tangle of dark code surrounding them. I had that sucker open in seconds, and was back out and in control of my body shortly after.

  Just in time, too, because, as I got to my feet, Mack hit the doorway.

  “Mack!”

  The sound of my voice made him pause, as he charged towards Askavor.

  “Mack. Stop!” Again, he hesitated, his head snapping around as he looked for the source of my voice.

  I watched his mouth drop open in surprise when he saw me, and then his gaze found the Blazers hanging from my shoulders, and travelled to the blades strapped to my waist.

  “Any of those for me?” he asked, taking in the vespis warriors arrayed to block the corridor, and Tovy hovering at my back. I pointed at my keeper.

  “Let the medic patch you, first.”

  Mack moved to stand near me, and jerked his chin towards the weaver.

  “Who is that?”

  “That is the weaver, Askavor. He’s my tech support. We need him to clear the arach coding from the systems.”

  I could tell from the look on Mack’s face that he didn’t like it, but it would do for now.

  “When we get out of this, you and I are going to talk about the company you keep.”

  Sure thing, Mack.

  “And your attitude.”

  “We are psi,” Tek cut across him. “We are the Vespis of K’Kavor. We are here to help.”

  “Which one of you said that?”

  Tek raised a foreleg, cradling his Blazer in the other, and not taking his eyes from the corridor he was guarding.

  “Let my medic help you before any more come.”

  It wasn’t exactly a request, but Mack took it that way. He looked at where Tovy was standing, took in his packs, and moved in front of the wasp.

  “I need two stims and a shot of adrenaline.”

  Tovy bent his head, flicking an antenna, before reaching out to touch the injury at Mack’s throat.

  “You need blood.”

  Mack shook his head.

  “I’ll take blood after my people are safe.”

  “You need it, sooner,” Tovy told him, but he was already unpacking the stims and adrenaline. “How much have you lost?”

  Mack glanced at me

  “He’s only fed once, so far.”

  It was better than Tens had fared—and Mack caught the thought, turned to look at me, and then back to Tovy. When he spoke, it was with barely suppressed fury.

  “I’m going to kill every motherfucking one of them. Give me the goddamn shots.”

  Tovy raised his head, as though looking at me, but I just shrugged. If I was the bu… wasp, I’d give the man what he wanted.

  “They are coming,” Tek warned.

  “Shots,” Mack demanded, glaring at the vespis medic, even as he stretched a hand out to me. “Guns and blade.”

  Tovy didn’t bother asking him to sit down. He just hit him with the shots, and let him fall. I moved to catch him, but Askavor was faster, shouldering me aside, and using his long fore-limbs to catch Mack before he hit the floor. He didn’t hold him, though, just lowered him down, and moved swiftly away. I waited until Mack had recovered enough to pull himself together, before passing over two Blazers and one of the long blades. Mack had them slung and strapped on, in record time.

  “Where?” he asked, but he was looking at Tek, and not me.

  It was Askavor who answered his question. He updated the ship’s schematics in my head, marking a trail to the dot that showed Tens’ location. Mack took it out of my head, and started to run, but Tek and the others were already moving. They didn’t bother running, and I learnt that flight was so much faster.

  They were out of sight in seconds, with Mack sprinting after. I ran after him, and Askavor came scurrying behind me. I didn’t have to ask why he put me between him and Mack. The sharp tic-tac sound of his feet as they struck the corridor was enough to set me on edge. Tovy did not explain, when he flew past me to fly alongside Mack, but I knew the sound of his wings would drown Askavor’s footsteps even further.

  When Rohan decided to join us, he tapped my implant, first.

  “Tell the spider not to eat me,” he said, and put himself on the map—right beside Cascade, in whatever room lay behind the next door along.

  “Ask—”

  “The boy and dog can come out,” he said. “I will not hurt either.”

  Well, damn. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said the spider was offended.

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  Yeah. Humans weren’t diplomatic.

  “At least he has an excuse.”

  Damnit! I had other things to focus on. I kept running, even though I flinched to the side when Rohan opened the door alongside me. It was a good thing the kid had warned me he was coming, or I might have started shooting. It was an even better thing that Mack was up front. The sound of solids smashing into bulkheads ahead of us drove all thought out of my head.

  Mack bolted towards the sound, and I raced after him. I didn’t even bother to try and stop Rohan and Cascade from coming with us. Tovy unslung a second Blazer, and flew ahead. He was firing as soon as he turned the last corner, not slowing down, or calling out our arrival.

  The solids stopped hitting the wall ahead of us, anyway, and I started to appreciate just how useful this psi thing might be. Of course, he hadn’t called out. Firstly, no vocal cords. Secondly, psi. I hit the corner with Rohan and the dog, only to have Askavor grab my attention.

  “The door.”

  I skidded to a halt, letting the boy and his pet run ahead.

  Door. Right. That was the other reason I was here.

  “Tens. Get your people back. I’m going to unlock the door.”

  “We’re not alone.”

  “How many?”

  “Four.”

  “Hostages?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  I didn’t need Mack roaring my name to know he’d heard. I set my back against a wall, glad that Askavor was keeping watch.

  “I can watch your body, and your mind, but you must hurry.”

  I closed my eyes, and sank into the implant, sliding through the link Askavor opened without hesitation. My crew needed me to open the door. Mack… Hells, Mack!

  This time, I was ready for the arach code that reached out from the door controls. Damn arach learned fast. I was not so ready to have Askavor coat me wi
th a layer of coded armor, and then start laying into the tendrils lashing out at me.

  “Hey!”

  “The door!”

  Trusting to the weaver’s armor, and his protection, I hunted down the door code. This time, when I got it to open, I jammed the door wide. There was no way I wanted my commands overridden once I was back in the fight and in no position to fix it.

  “Fix it,” Askavor said. “We will hold here, until the queen arrives.”

  “So, she’s on her way, then?”

  “Almost,” was not comforting, but I got to fixing the code I’d just broken. It didn’t take long, and I wondered how long my jamming trick would have lasted, once the arach discovered it.

  “Long enough,” Askavor replied. “Their best programmers are on the mother ship.”

  There was a mother ship? Oh, goody—meant in all the ways that said it sucked.

  Job done, I dropped out of the ship and back into my own head, just as Mack vanished through the door leading to the cabin where Tens and the others were being held. With the corridor clear, the vespis followed after. I heard three, maybe four, shots, and then the clash of metal striking hardened bone.

  “Medic!” Mack shouted, and Tovy flitted to the door, taking the few seconds he needed to see what was happening inside.

  He didn’t hesitate for long, but disappeared swiftly into the room.

  I saw no sign of Rohan and the dog.

  “They’re here,” Tovy assured me.

  “The timer,” Askavor reminded me.

  I moved, doing the same peek-a-boo, Tovy had, before moving in. Tens had to have been further gone than I thought. There were six—each occupied by a wasp, with no way of me getting near. I looked for the hostages, instead. There were several bodies lying on the floor.

  Askavor rolled in, and froze. I caught a flash of horror from his mind, and then he spoke.

  “Door,” he said, and there was enough urgency in his voice that I didn’t need him to tell me to hurry.

  I looked at the melee, and then backed up to stand in front of him. It might not help, if I was inside the ship’s systems…

  “But it might. Please, hurry. The timer will be too slow.”

  Well, that wasn’t good news. As hard as it was, I settled against one of his forelimbs, and dove back into the system. I was seriously glad when Askavor came with me. This time, getting coated in code wasn’t quite so bad, especially not when the arach programs couldn’t seem to get a grip on it. It was better, when he hit me with a second coating of code, and I could see the tendrils melt away from me when they touched it.

  “That’s not going to hurt the ship, is it?”

  “Only arach code.”

  Oh, good. I focused on the door commands. It was a simple matter to turn the timer off, and come back to the battle. I was just in time to catch a flash of movement beside the door.

  “Aska!”

  “I have them.”

  We turned together, and fought to kept the door clear—me using one hand to brace the Blazer against my hip, and hoping there was no one in the cabin opposite, and him, with foreclaws stiffened to points, as he stabbed over my shoulder. He barely pulled his legs back in time, as the door snapped shut. It shook as the next arach in the swarm outside slammed hard against it.

  “Jam it,” Tens said, from behind me. “They have the codes.”

  Damnit. I remembered them coming in to feed, securing the prisoners inside. Of course, they did. I reached back into the code and fried the controls. This time Aska was only just in time to stop the hostile arach software from wrapping itself around me—and I was only just in time to block Mack’s strike against the spider.

  “Get out of the way, Cutter.”

  “No can do, Mack.”

  “Your choice,” and he swung the long blade at my chest.

  I backed up, and found my retreat blocked by Askavor’s bulk. The small sound of fright I heard, as I skipped forward, was my own—but I turned against the spider’s foreleg, and blocked Mack’s strike with the short blade, followed by the hastily spun Blazer.

  That, sure as shit, wasn’t good for the barrel, but it blocked Mack’s fist, as well, which was good for me.

  “Mack!” Tens. Promptly ignored, as Mack readied himself for a second attack. “Mack!”

  And then Mack jerked as something struck him from behind. He started to turn, but the wasp venom acted swiftly, and he toppled, unable to resist, as Askavor reached past me to catch his body and lower it to the floor. Tek’s voice was a welcome distraction.

  “The queen requests the second shuttle, and assistance to fly the first.”

  “I’m not sure I can fly both at once.”

  “I can help,” came as a chorus from Tens and Rohan.

  I looked at them.

  “Aren’t you locked out?”

  “Not if we go through your head, we aren’t.”

  Fan-fucking-tastic, but at least it solved the problem—and there was no arach code in the drop-ships’ controls. I settled myself to the floor, beside Mack, and pulled his head into my lap. I don’t know if it made him feel any better, but it sure helped me—and much more than I wanted to admit.

  I felt even better, when Cascade came and lay down on Mack’s other side, although I wasn’t so happy with the big beast resting his head on my legs. Now, I really wasn’t going anywhere, and I wouldn’t be able to react if the arach made it into the room. I looked up at the ventilation ports set high in the wall, relieved to see they were too small for a human, let alone a full-sized arach.

  “They don’t fit,” Rohan reassured me, and connected with the shuttle. “You’re going to need to open the hangar bay doors.”

  Of course, I was.

  “Get your greasy paws off the controls,” Tens ordered. “You can familiarize on the way down.”

  “The queen wishes to depart immediately.” Tek ended what was starting to look like a brawl. “Do you both know how to fly?”

  “Yes,” came from two minds, followed by Rohan’s instructions to the dog. “Stay, Cascade. Guard!”

  Cascade raised his head from my leg, and wuffed, once, before settling back down.

  Great.

  “I’ll get the doors,” I said, and was relieved when Askavor spoke.

  “I am ready.”

  We turned back to the ship’s controls, and I was relieved to see that Askavor’s virus was still at work. I was not so relieved when I outdistanced it, entering the ship’s central systems.

  “I have you,” Askavor said, and I wondered where he’d heard that turn of phrase.

  “It is a weaver saying, from when we secure the webs.”

  It meant something else, too. I caught a quick flash of extra meaning, but it was gone before I could see what it was. It made me wonder what he wasn’t telling me… or it would have, if I hadn’t been too busy dodging code. It looked like the arach had been so focused on getting to Tens and the crew, that they hadn’t bolstered their systems.

  I moved on the code for the hangar-bay doors, and opened them all to space. It surprised me that the Shady Marie had four. I felt the vibration as they opened, and then the slight imbalance as the drop-ship took off.

  “Not bad, kid,” told me exactly who was flying it, and I wondered what Mack would say about that.

  “Just wait until I can move, again,” came through loud and clear.

  Rohan laughed, the sheer high-spirited glee of it making me smile, until Askavor brought me back to the fact I was still in danger.

  “We need to clear this.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  He coated me in defense code and virus, once more, and said, “Run through as much of the arach programming as you can. I’ll pull you free when you get stuck.”

  When, huh? Well, as much as I didn’t like the sound of that, I liked the idea of Mack’s systems being in arach control, even less.

  “When we’re done,” I told
him, picking the densest clump of arach code that I could see, “you need to teach me this.”

  He didn’t answer, but that was fine by me. I had a feeling he’d have only disagreed, and I was far too busy dealing with the mess I’d just run into to do that. When we got out of this? Well, when that happened, we’d be having this discussion, again.

  11—Mack Meets the Queen

  By the time, Askavor and I had dealt with the arach code in the central systems, Tens had arrived with the first shuttle, and I had to secure the doors to the hangar, they’d landed in.

  “I’ll help Rohan,” Tens said, but Tovy laid a clawed hand on his shoulder.

  “You need blood,” he said. “I have helped recover the others, but you are next.”

  I saw Tens look up at the vespis, and open his mouth to protest.

  “Don’t make me sting you,” Tovy said, and Tens subsided.

  “Sure, Doc. Plug me in.”

  Mack was already plugged in, the vespis having moved him out of my lap and onto a clear space of floor. He was sleeping, as though that was what you did when you had the chance—and it made me wonder about his past. The only folk I’d come across who slept like this were agents involved in high-tempo ops. Those guys grabbed their sleep where they could get it, but when Mack had ever been involved in those, I had no idea.

  With the queen being newly docked, I figured I should check to see if her path was clear. Several of the vespis around flicked their wings and made a series of short buzzes. I frowned, trying to work out what that was all about.

  “They think you’re funny,” Tovy supplied. “The queen would prefer it if enemies lined her path. She is angry.”

  “Sounds like my kind of gal,” Mack murmured, and I looked over at where he lay.

  His eyes were still closed, even if he was far too awake in my head.

  “You’re noisy.”

  Great.

  “Shut up and go back to sleep,” I ordered, but Mack was having none of it.

  “Get me on my feet, Doc. I’m not welcoming a royal visitor in this position.”

  Tovy hesitated, and Mack started to struggle upright on his own. Several of the wasps nearest him flared their wings in alarm, and two hurried over to hold him still. Mack glared at them, and then looked around the room.