By the time they reached the outer wall, only a short length of tunnel remained. Jo-Jo ran his hands over the blemish.
‘What are you doing?’ she panted.
‘The ‘zoon ripped its coupling here; it’s still healing and there’s a weakness.’
Her reply was a strangled noise, and her fingers tugged at his robe. Over his shoulder, Jo-Jo glimpsed the last of the passage disappearing. The object had spread right out to the ship’s limits, and in a moment it would crush them.
‘Shit!’ Jo-Jo gouged at the roughened blemish. ‘Scratch it, hit it. Anything!’
Mira roused herself and joined him, pinching and pushing at the skin. She cried a name he didn’t recognise. ‘Wanton!’
Another loud crack. Then the sound of something wet and heavy moving behind them. Jo-Jo felt pressure against his back and neck. This time he couldn’t turn his head to see. He was pinned to the wall, his chest struggling to expand enough for him to breathe.
Next to him, Mira’s eyes were closed, as if she were concentrating on something else. He clawed the wall with his fingers and dug his toes into it with the small room for movement he had left.
‘Take my hand,’ Mira said suddenly.
Her eyes were open, and clear. Strain showed on her face.
He reached down and felt her slim fingers grip his own. She squeezed his palm, giving comfort. Strength and calm flowed from her. His breathing steadied despite the crushing weight.
‘It’s going to expand again,’ she said. ‘Be ready.’
Jo-Jo had long fantasised about her voluntary touch, and the irony of it coming now angered him. He squeezed her hand and laboured over the words he had to say. ‘I would’ve—come—anyway. Sole—didn’t need—to—make me.’
He saw her brief surprise and something else, something he couldn’t quite read.
Then the pressure began to build again, and his ribs felt like they were breaking. He tried to brace, tried to fight the compression, refusing to let go of Mira’s hand even when her fingers went slack.
No. No!
Then the outer skin split, and he tumbled free.
MIRA
‘Wanton!’
Mama? Are you all right?
The pressure against her was so great that Mira could barely breathe. Nova, can you—speak to—Wanton? I’m in—trouble.
Si, Mama. I will try. What should I say?
Unable to think in sentences, Mira shared images of her situation: of the object expanding so rapidly that it was pressing on their backs, and the weakness, the blemish that Josef had spoken of, where Insignia had torn away from the side.
Crushed, Nova. Wanton, help us.
Long moments passed, and the only things she was aware of were her battle to breathe and Josef holding her hand. With every increase of pressure against her body, his grip tightened as though he would never let go.
JO-JO
His fall to the dune below should have been soft, but the distance turned soft sand to rock. He lay, winded and paralysed by the agony of impact, unsure whether he’d broken anything.
Through sand-blurred eyes, he saw the glow emanating from Medium, and behind it a moonlit sky. Thank Crux it was still night. Then the outer skin of the ship ruptured above him, squirting fluid and a sticky wet mass into the hot air and spraying him with sweet fluid.
An intense rush of adrenaline got him upright. He searched frantically for Mira, and saw her in front of him, spreadeagled on her stomach. She’d been thrown further from the craft than he had, and he scrambled over to join her.
She moaned at his touch.
‘Away!’ he cried in her ear. ‘We need to get further away.’
She struggled to her knees and collapsed, her moaning louder.
Jo-Jo swore at himself. He couldn’t lift her. Randall’s image sawed its way into his head. The damn mere would find strength from somewhere; he damn well would too. Bending down, he lifted Mira into his arms. She was light, but he was weak and hurting all over. Not just hurting, his body screamed at him. But he ignored it and began to stagger in the direction of the biozoons.
He only vaguely took in the headlights of the TerV that left the edge of the ship, heading towards the dark mouth of the mine. The activity of the Saqr, though, was more worrying. They seemed disorientated, some crawling in circles while others stopped to rear up on their hind legs. Their bodies made a weird shadow play against the still-glowing ship.
Jo-Jo set his jaw.
Can, he told himself.
Mira stirred in his arms. ‘Let me walk,’ she whispered.
He shook his head. ‘You can’t.’
The TerV lights had changed direction. It was labouring over the dunes towards them.
‘Who’s—in—that?’ he asked her.
Mira pushed back the hood of her robe to see. ‘His name is Jancz. He works for them. He led the invasion here. Brought the Saqr in.’
‘What sort of ‘esque would work for the Extros?’
‘He told me it was logical that he did.’
‘What’s that mean?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe he formed a... relationship with them, as I did with Wanton.’
Wanton? The name she’d called out before they fell from the ship. ‘Who’s Wanton?’ he said fiercely.
‘Wanton is a corporeal. I brought it here, to save it. That’s what I was doing in the ship. Wanton was dying. I brought it back so that it could integrate with the others.’
Jo-Jo took a couple of savage breaths that sent pains shooting from his belly to the base of his neck. He gasped and staggered.
She hung onto his shoulders. ‘Does your chest hurt?’ she asked anxiously.
‘No more than the rest of me,’ he said, righting himself. ‘Jancz stole my ship.’
‘Sal? Sal is yours?’
He stared at her. ‘You know Salacious?’
Mira nodded weakly. ‘Sal is a hybrid. We can communicate. Jancz hasn’t treated it well.’
Jo-Jo set his jaw. ‘You can save that story for another time. Right now, I’m going to get my ‘zoon back.’
His staggering footsteps gained some strength and purpose. Jancz framed me. The fucker stole my ship. All the panic and fear and pain of being on board Medium again burned away on a surge of hot fury. Once before when Jo-Jo had thought he would die, as he floated free in space around Dowl station, anger had saved him, pulled him back from the brink of despair and defeat. It did the same thing now, channelling energy into his limbs, giving him a goal. His ship, Salacious, was the closer of the two biozoons.
Sal.
He reached the hybrid as the TerV climbed the dune closest to them. Though the ‘zoon was half buried in the sand, its egress scale was too high to reach. He put Mira down on the sand, leaning her back against the ‘zoon’s skin, and turned to face the TerV.
He recognised both of the figures inside it: Jancz, who’d introduced himself in the station bar as Jud, and like the Balol, who’d kept Jo-Jo busy in the bedroom while Jancz had stolen his ship.
He wasn’t sure which one of them he’d kill first. Jancz, he’d learned through a glimpse at Lasper Farr’s Dynamic System Device, had been Randall’s Capo during the Stain Wars. The ‘esque was the worst type of mercenary, one who changed sides mid-conflict. Or maybe he’d been working for the Extros back then too.
The TerV grunted air from its brake jets, and settled to rest an arm’s length away.
Mira moaned softly behind him, but he kept his focus on the meres.
Ilke got out first. Then Jancz. Neither had changed as far as Jo-Jo could see through the film of their masks. Ilke’s spikes were bunched together, her powerful body squashed into a cooling suit, but Jancz’s suit had plenty of room. He looked as lightweight and unimpressive as he had in the bar. More so, in fact.
Both Jancz’s and Ilke’s eyes were on Mira. ‘Hey,’ said Jo-Jo, waving his hands. ‘Remember me?’ He loosened his hood, pushing it back far enough for them to see his face.
Ilke s
hrugged and moved to walk past him, but he blocked her way. She automatically pulled a pistol from the pocket of her suit and shoved it into his ear.
‘Ilke!’ barked Jancz.
She shifted the muzzle back a fraction. ‘Yeah?’ Her reptilian eyes glistened through the suit film at him. Then she blinked in recognition. She gave a belly laugh and glanced across at her partner. ‘He’s the one we took the ‘zoon from.’
Ludjer Jancz didn’t blink an eyelid. ‘I know. Kill him.’
MIRA
I know you, Mira Fedor.
Mira felt a shiver run through the biozoon’s outer skin. She sat up straighter. Sal?
You remember me.
Of course. You helped me.
I have communed with your mate, Tasy-al, who rests alongside me. What are you doing here, touching me?
Sal, can you let us come aboard? W-we cannot reach Insignia, and we’re in danger.
I can see that.
Mira waited. She knew, from her brief encounter with the hybrid once before, that it was perverse and damaged.
I have news for you. I have a new captain, it said finally, almost jauntily, ignoring her plea.
Ludjer Jancz is not good for you, Sal. There are others that would be kinder. He took you illegally.
Not him, the hybrid scoffed. Jancz is no longer my captain. It made a sighing noise. I have moved on.
Would you ask your captain, if we might board?
I could.
Sal, Jancz is dangerous. He’ll hurt us. Please...
Sal remained silent as Jancz and his Balol partner got out of the TerV and approached them.
Sal! Mira cried.
I don’t need to concern myself with your problems, Mira Fedor.
The other one has a weapon. See... she will kill Josef.
Josef? The hybrid’s tone sharpened. Who is this ‘esque that you call Josef?
Josef is your true captain, your legal captain. Do you remember him?
The sound of a series of explosions froze them all, delaying the hybrid’s reply. Across the dunes, Medium cracked open, its skin ripping apart like watery overripe fruit. The glow grew brighter as an enormous glittering carapace emerged, shivering and shaking bits of the ship’s outer hull from itself.
Even Jancz and Ilke stopped and turned to watch.
‘Josef!’ called Mira, recovering first.
Josef, repeated Sal.
Mira’s cry shook Jo-Jo from his trance, and he lunged for Jancz. The pair tumbled into the sand and wrestled.
Jo-Jo was the stronger of the two, but neither of them was a match for like, who casually stepped forward and lifted them apart. She let go of Jancz, dropping him to his feet. Then, loosening her weapon again, she shoved it under Jo-Jo’s jaw.
My Josef? exclaimed Sal.
Si. Jancz tricked Josef and stole you. He’s been looking for you ever since.
The Post-Species stole me?
What do you mean, the Post-Species?
The corporeals, Ludjer Jancz and Ilke.
Jancz and like are Post-Species?
Of course. Sal sounded perplexed and irritated by Mira’s ignorance.
Then yes. The Post-Species stole you. And they’ve been cruel to you, binding your fins.
The hybrid emitted a sound somewhere between a screech and a squeal, and shifted in the sand; an impossibly large floundering whale, its tail pounding the dune and its gills venting odd noises.
Mira crawled away from its side.
‘Crux!’ shouted Jancz, backing away towards the TerV. ‘Ilke!’
The ‘zoon’s cephalic fins began to strain against their cruel restraints. Each screech seemed to stretch them further, and sent more sand and rocks blasting out from underneath it.
‘Ilke!’ bellowed Jancz again. But the Balol was transfixed, glancing between the strange creature emerging from the discarded skeleton of the Extro craft and the thrashing squealing ‘zoon before her.
When one of Sal’s cephalic fins ripped free and wavered in the air though, Ilke began to run. She leapt into the TerV, and Jancz sent it skimming up over a dune.
But the ‘zoon was quicker than them. It flicked its freed and powerful fin in an arc, and slammed the vehicle.
The TerV split apart, tossing Jancz and like into the sand.
The fin lifted and pounded the bodies again and again, until there was nothing left of them but fin marks in the sand.
‘Josef, look!’ cried Mira, pointing. Sal’s egress scale had opened. ‘Sal’s letting us in.’
Jo-Jo got to his feet and took Mira’s arm. They hurried to a spot directly below the scale, and he laced his fingers together. ‘I’ll hoist you,’ he said.
‘But how will you get on board?’
‘Just put your foot in my hands,’ he shouted hoarsely.
Sal, we can’t reach the egress scale.
Step away, Mira Fedor. Step away.
‘Josef,’ she said.
‘Step up!’ he screamed at her.
She made a fist and punched Jo-Jo in the side of the face.
He dropped his hands in shock.
‘Sal wants us to move away. Quickly.’
She grabbed his hand and pulled him. Together, they climbed the closest dune. Halfway up, Mira began to tire. Jo-Jo’s grip grew tighter, and their positions reversed. He was pulling her, urging her onward.
As they reached the peak, the sand began to vibrate. Behind them Sal was moving, rocking back and forth with gathering momentum. In front of them something else was happening. Medium glowed brighter than ever. The last of its outer skin sloughed away to allow a ghastly, glistening birthing.
Fluid sprayed forth in great bursts, sizzling as it touched the hot sand. A bulbous shape, the size of a dozen biozoons, had emerged. Then the shape split wide in another spray of fluid and a cavernous yawning hollow opened before them. Huge triangular-shaped objects glistened around the edges of the hollow. Teeth.
Jo-Jo fell to his knees, hands covering his face. ‘No!’
Mira couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything but watch the Extro craft transforming. Behind the maw another wad of skin unfolded, a body that seemed to expand until the scaly quivering length of it went further back into the dark than she could see.
An overpoweringly sweet scent assailed them; gusts of it had them both choking. Then the sand began to quake again.
Mira gripped Jo-Jo’s shoulder and pointed back to the two biozoons. Sal had rocked itself until it had dug deep down into the sand. They could now reach the egress scale.
This time they helped each other, holding hands, pulling each other along. Josef had no more strength than she did, and tears poured down his face. Their only words to each other were encouragement or instructions, until they’d climbed in through the egress scale.
When the scale closed, they both collapsed onto the floor.
‘Josef?’ whispered Mira. ‘Are you... ?’
He sat up suddenly, words tumbling from his mouth. ‘We have to get out of here quickly. The survivors are on the islands to the west, like you said they’d be. We should go there.’
Mira pushed up onto an elbow. All her strength had gone, drained by the heat and the effort and the fear. ‘Then I need to get to the buccal.’
Jo-Jo nodded. She saw he was still crying, a steady stream of tears of release that made him neither gasp nor sob, but which did not stop.
He tried to stand, but his legs buckled underneath him. His whole body trembled, but he got his knees underneath him and crawled to her. ‘I -I, Mira, I c-can’t carry you—’ This time he sobbed. ‘I’m sorry.’
Mira reached out and clasped his hand, letting him know that she understood. She’d thought him so rough and self-reliant, closed off, when they’d been together in Insignia before. Like Rast Randall, though more predictable and with a peculiar type of integrity. But this man who’d come to help her was altogether different, raw and open and unsure. When he’d pulled her from the liquefying floor of the Extro ship, she’d felt no
thing but relief to see him. Now something else stirred. An emotion she’d not felt before.
He brought her fingers to his face and held them against his cheek. He was trembling, as if needing her close. She felt the hot wetness of his face against hers. Felt his exhaustion to match hers. He turned and pressed his lips into her palm.
Instead of pulling away, she welcomed his contact, letting her hand cup his jaw. They were alive.
‘Baronessa?’ A quiet and totally unexpected voice intruded into their space. ‘Let me help you.’
Josef pulled away, and both of them turned in the direction of the voice.
A slim tight-skinned ‘esque in a worn robe stepped around the bend of the stratum. ‘My name is Tekton of Lostol.’
JO-JO
Tekton! A wave of shock passed through Jo-Jo’s weakened body. ‘What in Crux’s name are you...’ He trailed off, barely able to believe that Tekton was standing before him.
The tyro gave a strained smile. ‘It would seem that fate has plans for us. Or should I say that Sole does.’
‘You are the tyro from Belle-Monde. You knew Marchella Pellegrini,’ said Mira. Like Jo-Jo, she forced herself to an upright position, her torso wavering as if she might collapse again.
Tekton went to her and lent his support. Slowly, carefully, he helped her to her feet. He was not much taller than her, or stronger, but he had energy where hers was spent.
‘Marchella Pellegrini,’ said Tekton. ‘A name I had not thought to hear again. Perhaps, at another time, we can speak of her. But now there is some urgency, I believe, to leave this location.’
‘Si,’ she said. ‘Help me to the buccal then come back for Josef.’
Tekton nodded his agreement, but Jo-Jo didn’t trust the tricky Godhead.
As the tyro helped Mira Fedor around the stratum and out of his sight, Jo-Jo crawled after them. On hands and knees he made his way, painfully, towards the buccal. He knew this ship, remembered the contours and bends, the quicker ways. And the ship moud code. ‘Sal,’ he gasped as he put one hand in front of the next.
Josef? Josef Rasterovich? Salacious’s reply rumbled through his mind as the long-dormant moud reactivated.
Transformation Space (Sentients of Orion Book 4) Page 24