Arach

by C. M. Simpson

  “Your Majesty, it would be my pleasure.”

  The queen said nothing more, but her gaze swept across her guards as she turned and left the room.

  “Gather your weapons, Captain, and meet us in the dock.”

  There was only one shuttle bay she could mean. I only hoped Rohan had remembered to close the shuttle bay doors.

  “Like I would ever forget!”

  Mack was right: the kid was a smart ass.

  “I learned from the best.”

  “Just focus on flying the damn shuttle.” Tens was clearly not impressed.

  We hit the armory, and found Steppy waiting. He didn’t ask questions, just handed each of us a small duffle bag containing our usual load-out. It didn’t take us long to grab our gear and run, but we each thanked him on the way out the door.

  There was no telling what he’d do, otherwise—and Steppy’s idea of a lesson in manners could wreck more than your day. A simple thank you was by far the better option. We got to the shuttle bay, and on board with the queen’s team, while the engines were still warming up.

  “You flying this thing?” Mack asked, looking at Tens.

  “Case is still in stasis,” and we were out of the docking bay and over at the station in very short order.

  “Where do you want us to park her?” Tens asked the queen, and she reached over his shoulder and touched a point on the orbital schematics that was nowhere near the docks.

  “They won’t see us coming.”

  The queen was right. There was no way the arach on board the orbital would see this coming. I was glad the combat armor Steppy had stowed in our duffels was good for a short trip in vacuum, but wondered how the vespis were going to handle it.

  “We can manage short sojourns in space,” the queen replied, even though I hadn’t asked the question. “You will need to get that airlock open before we move from the shuttle.”

  That airlock wasn’t on the schematics—at least, not the schematics that we had access to. We didn’t see it until we were right underneath it. Tens overflew it, and then rolled the shuttle and flipped so he could come back under the orbital and use belly clamps to fasten the shuttle to the underside of the station.

  “No space-walking necessary,” he said. “Cutter, you’re up.”

  And so I was. Tens had extended a small skirt-like seal up and over the hidden lock, and I was able to patch right through it.

  “Your Majesty, I believe we can help you improve your station security,” Mack said, as I cycled the mechanism, and led the way through the door. Once I’d checked the corridor beyond was clear, I got ready to move ahead.

  “Stop,” the queen said, shifting from human to vespis form. “Join the guard. Vespis tradition dictates that I must lead.”

  It sounded like a dumb idea to me, since that would leave her the most exposed to booby traps and other attacks, but a firm, clawed grip on my ankle let me know there was no point in arguing. Fine! Who was I to argue against tradition, anyway?

  I waited for my assigned guard to join me, and then did my best to keep up. Station gravity kicked in part way up the corridor, and I had to hang onto the rungs making a path up the side of the wall. The vespis quickly outdistanced me, Mack and Tens, something that clearly displeased the queen.

  Just when we’d resigned ourselves to climbing the rest of the way on our own, and then sprinting to catch up, three of the vespis bodyguards returned. They stopped, one behind each of us.

  “Please, face the wall,” said the one hovering behind me, when I turned to look at it.

  I did as it asked, but I’d been helped to catch up before, and was pretty sure what was coming next. Below me, Mack shouted a protest, but mostly because he didn’t know how the vespis carried their human companions. I just let myself hang, as I was lifted up the corridor, far faster than I could have climbed on my own.

  Well, okay, I didn’t just let myself hang. I pulled the Blazer 54, and made sure it was ready for firing.

  “Where to?” I asked, embarrassed by the fact the queen had waited for us where the corridor entered an unmapped room below the control center. Honestly? That couldn’t be good for station security, either. The queen ignored that thought, although I’m sure she noticed it.

  “You and T’Kit go here,” she said, and a section of orbital schematics flashed into my head.

  The vespis bodyguard that had lifted me up the corridor, moved as soon as the queen had finished speaking, and I trotted after it. Behind me, I heard the queen repeating her instruction, although the names of the guards varied. Mack and Tens were assigned a guard each, leaving three to guard the queen. I wondered if it would be enough to keep her safe.

  “It is the least we will allow her,” T’Kit told me, “and even she must do as we ask when it comes to her absolute safety.”

  I made a note to include the queen’s team in any warnings I might have for her.

  “That would be appreciated. Now, hush.”

  I wanted to ask why, but I didn’t have to. We’d come to a cross-section which would take us to the point the orbital crew had locked themselves into. I noticed shadows moving on the floor to one side, and indicated it to the vespis. She flashed the scent of arach into my head, indicating that they were on both sides of the cross-tunnel.

  I guess they must have heard us coming.

  “They are sensitive to the sound of our wings… and they have used filaments to detect our approach.”

  They had?

  The vespis flipped an antenna towards the ceiling, and then moved it to indicate two different sections of wall, and I wondered how I could have missed the fine strands of web there. Actually, given exactly how fine it was, it was probably not surprising that I’d missed them.

  I checked the Blazer’s settings, and moved up alongside T’Kit.

  “Now,” echoed through my head, and we slid into the cross-corridor, each facing a different direction.

  Given how much the arach loved their ceilings, I was already looking up and firing as the first one dropped. Sneaky bastards. There were only two on my side, but T’Kit had chosen the corridor where the scent was strongest—and she hadn’t bothered looking upwards. She’d been too busy engaging with the two that had attacked from the floor as soon as she’d come round the corner.

  The two on the ceiling had waited for her to be drawn out by their comrades and for her move fully underneath them. I shot the first one as it dropped, taking the time to step back towards the entrance point, so T’Kit’s head wasn’t in the line of fire. There wasn’t much I could do about her wings, but seeing as she’d already folded them close against her back, they weren’t much of a problem.

  Mind you, that would have to hurt like Hell, especially if the arach succeeded in tearing her wings from her shoulders. The second one managed to land on the point where T’Kit’s abdomen joined her thorax, but my first set of shots made it press itself closer to the wasp’s carapace, disrupting its first strike.

  It made up for that, now, by driving its forelegs into the abdomen close to the joint. T’Kit whistled in pain, but was too busy trying to deal with her other opponents. I hoped Mack and Tens weren’t having quite so much trouble. I moved along the wall, trying for a clearer shot at the arach.

  The curve of the wasp’s abdomen acted as partial cover, and I was afraid of hitting her wings, but the damage the arach could do in its current position was more concerning. The wasp’s body was narrowest where the thorax joined the abdomen. The way the arach was slicing at that joint, could sever the abdomen in short order if I couldn’t do something about it.

  I waited until the spider reared up for its next strike, and fired into its exposed underside. The slugs knocked it off-balance, causing it to stagger further up T’Kit’s thorax. It brought its forefeet down onto the wasp’s carapace, but not in a bladed strike, more in a hasty grab for purchase as it started to slip.

  Even so, it turned its head towards me, and I caught s
ight of the gleam of its multiple eyes.

  Perfect.

  This time, aware of the wasp’s head not quite in my line of fire, I chose precision. As the arach looked towards me, I fired at its largest eye. I figured that, even if it ducked, I had a good chance of hitting the carapace and line of smaller eyes above it. I didn’t wait to see if the shot made it, but fired two more in rapid succession, aiming slightly lower and more to the center.

  Who the fuck knew where these things kept their brains? It was one more thing to add to the to-do list, when I got back to the Shady Marie. I hit with all three shots, and the spider slumped, and then slid off the wasp’s back, leaving a trail of ichor behind it.

  “Thank you,” T’Kit said, bisecting the first of her opponents’ heads with a bladed forearm strike, but her mind-voice sounded gritty with pain, and I slid further along the wall, trying to get a closer look at the damage the arach had done.

  “Leave it,” the wasp clattered, and skittered forward.

  I noticed that one of her hind legs wasn’t quite as coordinated as the other.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asked, and she understood exactly what I meant.

  “Only the queen. We must take the objective—and quickly.”

  The ‘objective’ lay just ahead. I wanted to see if we had cleared all the arach from the area, but didn’t have time to tap the station’s security systems. We moved toward the room, keeping an eye on the ceilings. When we were several doors down, I called a halt, remembering Ghoul’s lair.

  “Let me make sure they are locked,” I said, indicating the entrances we have passed. “If we don’t have time to check them, at least let me make sure they’re locked down so nothing can come up behind us.”

  She stopped, sinking down to the floor to take the pressure of her injured abdominal joint.

  “Hurry.”

  I wondered what the rush was, but didn’t like to ask. It didn’t take long to lock down the rooms in this corridor. Tens was right, there was a lot we could do to improve the security of the station.

  “The queen will be pleased,” T’Kit said, agreeing with the thought, as she pushed herself back onto all six legs.

  She didn’t give me any time to respond to that, but hurried towards our destination. The corridors stayed clear all the way, and I knew we’d need to do a full sweep of the orbital to be sure none of the arach had found a place to hide. I knew how small a space the spiders could hide in.

  “Agreed,” T’Kit said, and came to a stop outside the door leading to the room, where the station staff were sheltering. “Scan, please.”

  Please… always so polite, I thought, and set about doing what I’d been asked.

  “Thank you,” the wasp replied, although whether it was because I’d appreciated her manners, or was doing as I was told, I didn’t know.

  “Both.”

  There was no response to that.

  I accessed the station systems, and found my way back to the room we needed. What I saw beyond the door made my stomach churn.

  “I don’t think the station personnel locked themselves away,” I said.

  Anger vibrated T’Kit’s wings.

  “Open the door.”

  “Stay back,” I warned her.

  While I didn’t think the arach had booby-trapped the door, I didn’t want to risk it.

  “Are you sure the arach queen was still on her ship?” I asked.

  “Why do you ask?” T’Kit wanted to know… and then she dipped back into my head. “Oh.”

  “Is there some way to tell?” I paused, letting her think about it, and then an idea occurred to me. “Do they smell different?”

  “You learn quickly,” and amusement tinged the wasp’s tones.

  Again, the scent of arach filtered through my head, and into my nostrils. I took a little time to savor it, but couldn’t tell if it smelt different from the scent she’d passed to me down the corridor.

  “It doesn’t,” she confirmed, “but the possibility of the queen having left her ship was not one we could discount.”

  “Has it been known to have happened before?”

  “Never.”

  I wondered why she would not discount it, then.

  “Because the arach have been known to innovate on contact with other species—and now they have come into contact with humans, the most unpredictable creatures of all.”

  Creatures. It made me smile. At least specism wasn’t limited to my own race.

  “It is found in all races,” the wasp replied. “It is how we have preserved ourselves, up to now.”

  I got the impression she was making small talk to pass the time, and maybe to help her ignore the pain. Her next question confirmed it.

  “Have you opened the door, yet?”

  “Just a minute,” I said, then, “It’s unlocked. How do you want to do this?”

  “We try not to damage the cocoons, and destroy every arach we find within.”

  Sounded like a plan to me. I switched out the Blazer for the Glazer and Zakrava, and made sure I could get to my blades.

  “You ready?”

  “On three.”

  “One. Two. Three…”

  We burst through the door and into the chamber of horrors beyond. The arach had done a number on the personnel. Some of them were still doing a number. Not everyone was in cocoons. Some were being held tight as the arach fed.

  “Fuck this,” I said, and slid the smaller pistols home, bringing the Blazer up, instead.

  I might lose some accuracy, and the chance for collateral was higher, but some of these bastards had been sitting in areas the security cameras couldn’t see, and I needed them dead, sooner, rather than later, or T’Kit and I would be dead before the job was done.

  It was a bit of a surprise, when T’Kit didn’t disagree, but unslung two Blazers, firing each independently from the other.

  “We see differently,” she told me, “and coordinate differently.”

  I might have found that interesting, but I didn’t have time to digest it properly. The two arach that were closest had discarded their meals, and were racing towards me. I took them out in quick succession, and then fired upwards and into the third one coming over the ceiling towards me. I figured one day I would get over just how much that freaked me out—I just had to accept that today wasn’t going to be it.

  The fifth one leapt out from behind a cocoon. It had gone to hybrid form, and clamped two of its four hands over one of my arms, trying to pull me towards its far-too toothy maw. It was a good thing it hadn’t worked out this was a bad thing.

  I turned the Blazer in towards it, and gave it a short burst of solids. Its hands went limp, and it folded. I sidestepped its falling body, and moved with T’Kit around the room. After clearing her side, she sliced the cocoons down from the ceiling, and laid them gently on the floor, while I took out any threats trying to come in from the other side.

  Between us, we worked our way across the room. It must have been one of the conference halls, because it was bigger than it looked, and we took out twenty more arach, and, between us, we counted almost a hundred and fifty cocooned humans, all drained, drunk from, or dead. As soon as nothing else moved towards us, we commed the queen.

  “Area secured.”

  “Stay there,” the queen ordered. “I will come for you.”

  “T’Kit has been injured.”

  “How bad?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Guard T’Kit, report!” the queen ordered.

  “I may not survive.”

  How T’Kit could be so calm when reporting her own demise, I did not know, but shock tremored through me, and I wanted to cry.

  “I will come.”

  “Please, your Majesty, there is no nee—”

  “There will always be a need…” and the queen’s Galbas shifted to the fluid clicks and whistles of pure vespis.

  T’Kit was silent when
the queen was done, and I thought they had shifted directly to mind-to-mind. I left them to it, while I surveyed the room, looking for any movement that would signal we’d missed one of the arach. The only movement I saw was that of the humans, huddling together for comfort.

  I almost shot the first silver column of light that appeared amongst them, but T’Kit was faster. Before I could fire, she had snapped the Blazer out of my hand with a well-placed strike of her foreclaw.

  “Odzee,” she said, and I turned to her.

  “What can I do?”

  “Only the queen…” and I wondered what the queen could provide that I could not. I hope she arrived soon.

  18—Contracted to the Queen

  The queen arrived, but would have been too late to save her guard, if one of the Odyssey agents hadn’t been carrying a syringeful of nans, as well as several applications of skin-seal.

  “Can I help?” she’d asked, looking down at T’Kit, and brushed aside the wasp’s reply of ‘only the queen’. “She will not reach you in time.”

  To my surprise T’Kit did not argue, but flipped an antenna towards me.

  “She doesn’t know?”

  I glared at the wasp. I might not know, but I’d guessed. May not survive, indeed!

  Bandages would not work, but T’Kit finally agreed it would be a disservice to her queen if she allowed herself to die without trying to stay alive long enough for the queen to decide her fate. Odyssey combat operatives carried auto-injectors filled with nans, right alongside their emergency stim packs and adrenaline shots.

  Man, I never wanted to meet these guys on a bad day…unless that bad day was mine and they were on my side.

  It was both a relief and a disappointment when the operative didn’t respond. At least the party-line in my head was limited to the five usual culprits… oh, and every vespis psi in range.

  T’Kit gave the buzzing laugh I’d heard from others, and I glared at her. I’d held the chitin apart while the agent emptied the syringe into one of the arach wounds—the ‘killing’ wound, if T’Kit was to be believed. After that, we used the skin-seal to close the opening, and hopefully keep any infection out.