The Complete Aliens Omnibus, Volume 3

by Sandy Schofield

  “Can you find the hangar deck quickly?”

  “Not a problem,” McPhillips said and within a few seconds had four different views of the deck on the monitors.

  “Nothing but bugs,” McPhillips said softly, expressing the obvious.

  Two aliens were on top of Captain Palmer’s shuttle and a good dozen more were scattered around in plain sight. God only knew how many were in hiding in those shadows and storage bays.

  Palmer and the rest of them were walking into a huge nightmare.

  “Let’s move!” Green shouted and headed for the door at a full run.

  “Hang on a minute!” McPhillips shouted. Green turned around. “Sarge, I think there’s a better way.”

  “Make it quick.”

  McPhillips’s fingers danced over the control board and again the map of the surrounding area filled the middle screen. “The Professor’s got some private tunnels from here.” He pointed at the bookcase behind him. “I spotted them on the map when we were looking for Larson’s location. One dumps directly onto the flight deck.”

  Green nodded. “Good work. Now let’s find it.”

  Thirty seconds later they had the hidden door open and with Green on point and Rule bringing up the rear they were at a full trot for the hangar deck.

  Green just hoped they would be in time to help.

  21

  No more aliens appeared in the ten minutes it took for Kent to get Joyce’s wounds bandaged and for her head to stop spinning. She still felt light-headed when she stood and the lump just above her hairline hurt like hell, but otherwise she was going to live.

  The room looked like a hurricane had hit it. All the floors were covered with an inch-deep, jelly-thick water that made the footing slippery at best, and the place smelled a combination of alien rot and her son’s chemistry set.

  She was wet, bruised, and cut, but alive. That just amazed her. Every time she even blinked she saw the razor teeth of that alien inches from her face and the second mandible waiting to cut through her. But when she kept her eyes open, she knew she was alive.

  She gave Hank’s hand a final squeeze to say thank you one more time and let him know she was all right. He’d stayed with her like a worried mother, hovering over her while Kent had mended the cuts from the alien’s claws. He’d saved her life, and now she was even more determined to get them both off this rock and back home safely.

  She did a quick check of her Kramer to make sure it was all in working order, then glanced around at the men circled in defensive positions around her. Five, maybe six dead aliens littered the white lab around them and Cray’s body had washed against one of them in a grotesque loverlike position. Behind his body, the wall of glass they had broken to knock out the alien holding her had a human body hanging in it by the wires over his face. Another one of the Professor’s experiments. Looking at that body there, she really hoped Green was having some luck finding the Professor and Larson. They deserved whatever Green could give them, and much, much more.

  “Everyone ready to see if we can make it to the ship?” she called out, her voice echoing through the big lab and over the dead bodies of the aliens and Cray.

  Nods and a few “anytimes” answered her question.

  She took a deep breath. “Kent, lead the way. Stay close, people. If the bugs were in here, they for damn sure are going to be on the hangar deck.”

  Kent patted her shoulder as he passed her and headed for a double-sized brown door on the far side of the lab. Three others dropped in beside him and then she and Hank dropped into line behind them.

  She didn’t even look at Cray’s body as they passed. That could have well been her there beside him. She didn’t want to think anymore about that than she already was. Instead she looked at every shadow, at every corner as if an alien was going to come around it at any moment.

  From the jerky movements of everyone else’s heads, they were all doing the same. They were scared to death, and they all had a right to be.

  Kent reached the wide double doors that had obviously been designed to move large equipment from the hangar and storage areas into the labs.

  “Hang on until we get into position,” Joyce said.

  Six of them, including her and Hank, knelt or stood in firing positions facing the door. The others backed off, guns up and ready for anything.

  She glanced around to make sure everyone was in position, then said, “Go!”

  Kent threw open both doors and jumped back out of the way.

  Beyond was a fifty-meter-long room with high shelves on both sides and another double door on the far end. It was brightly lit and clean. Assortments of laboratory equipment and supplies filled the shelves and two carts were parked near the center.

  She studied the room slowly and carefully. Nothing seemed to be moving and she could see no sign of alien slime on any of the shelves or the clean white floor.

  “Four down one side,” Joyce said, “and four others down the other. Stay close to the shelves and protect each other’s back. Set up a defensive position at the other doors without opening them. The rest guard our rear and cover them from here.”

  Kent motioned for three men to follow down the left side of the storage room and Hank on the other side did the same. Joyce positioned herself square in the middle of the door with five others around her and they covered the eight men every inch of the way to the other side.

  “No signs at all,” Kent shouted as he reached the other door.

  “Yeah, looks clean in here,” Hank shouted.

  “Cover us,” Joyce shouted back and Hank nodded.

  She turned to the men guarding the room behind her. “Fall back inside the storage room and let’s get these doors closed. Better than being out here in the open.”

  They did as they were told and within a few seconds the big double doors were closed behind them. It wouldn’t hold an alien out, but if one came crashing through at least they’d have some warning.

  “Four of you stay here and keep the rest of us covered.” She turned and started right down the middle of the room toward Hank and Kent. After all this, if she couldn’t trust their judgment now, who could she trust.

  As she strode through the supply room, her gaze scanning the high shelves, she caught sight of a ventilation grate above the top shelf on the right. There was another directly across from it on the left. She stopped and picked out two men. “Keep a gun aimed at those vents,” she said, pointing at the grates. “And if your arms get tired, get someone to take your place. They’ll come in that way, if at all.”

  Two men did as she said and she joined Hank and Kent who had come back to the middle of the room to meet her.

  “We got a reprieve, but a short one,” she said. “Somehow we have to get to the ship. Off this rock is the only safe place.”

  Deegan, who had been staying near the back of the group in the other lab, moved up beside her. “Boss,” he said, “from what I can figure, the ship is about fifty, maybe sixty meters straight off these doors.”

  “Can you remember anything of what’s between here and there?” Kent asked.

  “Just open deck,” Deegan said. “A lot of it. Normally there’d be another shuttle there, but I heard the Marines took off in that one.”

  “Yeah,” Kent said. “A direct flight to the alien section.”

  “Suggestions?” she asked. She didn’t have any bright ideas at the moment herself. Covering fifty meters of open deck while fighting off aliens was going to be an ugly task at best. And probably fatal.

  On top of that it would take a good thirty seconds to cycle the airlock on the ship if it was closed. If it was open they were going to have to clean the ship of bugs. She hoped like hell it was closed and sealed like it was supposed to be when no one was on board.

  “Form a circle and run for it?” Deegan suggested, but both Kent and Hank shook their heads no.

  “Won’t work,” Hank said. “They’ll rush us so fast that we’ll cover ourselves in acid when we cut them do
wn. I’ve seen it happen before.”

  Kent nodded. “I agree. We’re better off going in small groups, enough to cover each other and fight our way slowly from different directions toward the ship.”

  Joyce nodded. She had a clear memory of a group of kids and two adults being covered by acid back on Earth when one of the adults had shot an onrushing alien in the body at close range. The momentum of the bug had carried it and its acid blood over all the kids. Thank God none of them had lived.

  Joyce glanced around the long storage room at the eighteen men, most of whom had their weapons at the ready as they continually scanned the room. Nineteen of them total. That made a good round number.

  She turned back to Hank and Kent and Deegan. “I agree with Kent,” she said. “Three groups of four and one of seven up the middle. Each group moves slow and not only covers themselves on all sides, but tries to cover the others as well.”

  Hank turned to Kent and Deegan. “Kent, you got a better memory than I do for these things. How wide is the room to the left and right of here?”

  Kent pointed to his right as he faced the hangar doors. “Main passageway and decontamination area is that way about twenty meters along that wall. Beyond it is maintenance another twenty meters. There’s a balcony over the decontamination area. It’s a square room in that direction, but I wouldn’t suggest we get too close to the main entrance.”

  “I agree,” Joyce said.

  “In the other direction,” Kent said, “is mostly just blank walls of rock. I suppose they left it unfinished in that direction in case they needed to expand the hangar deck. Not much chance of that now.”

  “So fewer places for bugs to hide on the left of the doors.”

  “A lot fewer,” Kent said.

  “And a better angle at the ship,” Deegan said. “Coming at it from the nose will allow us to see both sides and not get surprised by a bug coming over or under the ship.”

  Joyce patted him hard on the back. “I always knew there were brains in there,” she said, smiling.

  “Damn, blew my cover,” Deegan said.

  Joyce turned to Kent “Take three men and be ready to go first out the door and duck left. We’ll cover you from the door. Stop with your backs to the wall after about fifteen meters and cover us.”

  Next she turned to Deegan. “You pick three men and be ready to go out ten seconds after Kent. Go even farther left along the wall and again set up a defensive position so that you can see the ship and the deck between here and there.”

  Deegan nodded.

  “Someone needs to guard the right,” Hank said. “I can take three men and just go a few meters to defend from there.”

  Joyce nodded. “I’ll lead the rest strung out toward the ship across the deck. When you three feel the time is right, start your men toward the ship, too. Don’t wait too long because we don’t want to get too spread out. Ideally we should all be closing in on the ship about the same time.

  “And, Deegan, like you said, get far enough around to the left so you can see the far side of the ship and keep it clear as you come in.”

  “No problem, boss.”

  She glanced around, then took a deep breath. “Well, the longer we wait, the more bugs there’ll be to kill.”

  Kent turned and motioned to the three men who were nearest the hangar doors that they were with him. Hank and Deegan did the same and she told the rest in the room to follow her slowly across the deck when she started out.

  Then, with six Kramers pointed directly at the wide double doors to the hangar deck, she nodded for Kent to open them, quickly. And very wide.

  What she saw made her sick. Aliens. Everywhere.

  A fraction of a second later six automatic rifles were firing fast and hard, with others around them joining in.

  Kent had opened the doors into hell.

  So much for careful planning.

  * * *

  The battle was going poorly as far as the Professor was concerned.

  The two huge aliens circled each other, saliva dripping off their teeth like open faucets, their arms waving and slashing, usually missing. Both tails swished back and forth, sometimes hard and fast, sometimes slow and mean.

  The huge queen’s chamber was a wreck from their dance of destruction. Alien formations had been cut to the ground, pulling the human constructions like balconies and ladders under them down with them. Golden royal jelly, masses of it, a multiple fortune on the black market back on Earth, had been splattered and mixed with acid blood and saliva.

  In thirty minutes of circling and fighting, the queen was slowly gaining the upper hand over the rogue.

  At first it looked as if he would win easily and the Professor had been so excited. But as he and Grace watched, the advantage shifted to the queen.

  She was the crafty one.

  She was the smart one.

  She had avoided the rogue’s lunges after the first one and had slashed him again and again with her sharp tail and claws, letting his acid blood flow down his legs. Everywhere he stepped now he left bloody prints.

  Compared to her, he was a clumsy oaf, smashing everything, wasting energy as she dodged away from his frantic attacks more quickly with each passing minute.

  “This shouldn’t be happening,” the Professor growled. “He’s bigger and stronger than her. He’s a killing machine. She should be dead by now.” Grace hadn’t answered any of his ramblings for the past twenty minutes. She stood just inside the small side tunnel they had taken refuge in, Kramer in hand, keeping a sharp eye not only on the two huge aliens in front of them, but on the black tunnel behind them. So far no alien had dared get near this area, but she was taking no chances.

  The Professor moved forward and now stood just on the edge of the royal chamber, his helmet off, the Sound Cannon clutched almost unnoticed in his right hand.

  Grace’s hand went to the side of her head suddenly, as if she was almost in pain. “Sir, they’re screaming at each other again.”

  “It’s about to end,” he said. “Now he will win. You just watch.”

  But just as he spoke the queen lunged for the first time in the battle.

  She caught the rogue in the side and her tail whipped around and cut off the rogue’s left arm as they tumbled to the ground and rolled hard enough to shake the stone under the Professor’s feet.

  “No!” the Professor shouted, taking a few more steps into the chamber. But his scream was lost and small against the sounds of the titan battle going on in front of him.

  Grace stayed beside him, protecting him.

  But the queen didn’t notice them. She had the rogue gripped by the neck now in her giant teeth, and was twisting, doing her best to bite off a huge chunk of the rogue’s plates and skeleton.

  The rogue was on his side, thrashing, alien blood spurting from the stump of his arm.

  The queen’s razor-sharp tail again spun in the air, flicking back and forth before slicing into the rogue’s side with an ugly, thick smacking sound.

  Alien blood sprayed over the nearby wall and a few drops splattered near the Professor, but he didn’t notice. His creation was being killed. He didn’t believe it, even though he was seeing it.

  He had been wrong again.

  “The screams have changed,” Grace said. “Now it’s only one and it sounds more like pain than a challenge.”

  The queen ripped a huge hole in the side of the rogue’s neck with her mouth and then dove back in for more as the rogue tried his best to roll away from her.

  But that deadly tail of hers wasn’t finished with him yet. This time it whipped out and caught the rogue’s carapace, slicing a huge ugly cut through it like it was so much warm butter.

  The rogue thrashed even harder, but he was clearly mortally wounded.

  “Kill that bitch!” the Professor shouted, stepping even closer to the fight. “Grace, cut her down!”

  Grace stepped up beside the Professor and the Kramer opened up, steady as a rock in Grace’s hands. With a ful
l clip she sprayed the queen with deadly shots.

  The huge queen roared as she ripped another huge hole in the rogue’s neck.

  Grace finished the first clip and then at an almost invisible speed ejected it and put another in. But as her attention was focused for a second down at the gun, the queen took advantage.

  As if she were swatting a pesky fly, the queen whipped her tail around and caught Grace square in the chest with the razor-sharp point, slicing through her body armor and lifting her high into the air, cutting her in half and then smashing her against the stone wall like an egg dropped on a sidewalk.

  White fluid splattered everywhere, dripping down the alien saliva columns and pooling around her on the floor.

  She ended up in three parts.

  Her chest and right arm landed on a crushed alien egg.

  Her head, still attached to one shoulder and arm, bounced off a wall and landed near the Professor.

  Her lower torso ended two meters away from her head, her legs spread like a ten-dollar prostitute’s, armor ripped away showing her perfect pubic hair for the alien world to see. Her knees, in automatic reaction, went up and down, up and down, like she was asking everyone to look.

  On the stump of her neck, where the rest of her body used to be, white tubes pumped her last fluid out onto the floor of the queen’s chamber.

  Quickly the Professor stepped over to her head. “Grace,” he shouted. “God damn it. How’d you let this happen?”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. “You’re a real ass,” she said, “but I suppose you already knew that.”

  “Grace?” the Professor said, but she closed her eyes and inside her neck the last of the fluid ran out onto the stone floor.

  Behind him the queen screamed, then sunk her teeth again into the rogue.

  22

  Joyce couldn’t believe what she was seeing when Kent tossed those two double doors open. She had expected to see a wide-open area with the deck and her shuttle sitting there. Instead what she saw looked like an anthill of bugs, damn near blocking any vision of the shuttle at all. The smell of rot had swept in over them.