by Erica Rue
“I agree,” Victoria said.
“The other group of Vens has nearly knocked down the gate,” Benjamin said.
“Then we’d better join you soon. You can reorganize your people, and then give the order to retreat to your position.”
“Are you sure—” he began, but Lithia didn’t hear the rest of what he said. A small figure, much too small to be out here on the edge of the battle, was approaching.
“Evy? What are you doing out here?” Lithia said. Her chest tightened as she pulled the girl close.
“Lithia, please help,” Evy said.
The line was still open to Benjamin. “Evy is there with you?! You have to get her to the Temple!”
Lithia bit her lip as she scanned the scene. “I would if I could, but there’s no way. I can’t promise that there are no Vens prowling the houses near the Temple.”
“Zane needs help,” Evy said.
That caught Lithia’s attention. “Five minutes, Benjamin. Hope the gate holds, and get your people ready to cover us.” She cut off the call.
“Where is he?”
“By the tiller.”
“Evy, go hide in the market. Somewhere no one can find you, and don’t come out until I get you. Run,” Lithia said. Evy gave her one last look, eyes wide, full of uncertainty. Bravery and stupidity walked hand in hand, but Lithia refused to let anything happen to Evy.
***
Lithia was not the only one to find Zane. Melanie and another Ficaran were already there, laying down cover for the Aratian bladesmen. Zane was wielding a metal bar, which was not particularly useful for killing Vens.
It looked like they had already killed two Vens and were working on the other one.
“Zane, Benjamin is about to call a retreat so we can regroup,” Lithia said. The Ven was occupied by the Aratians at the moment.
“Evy’s here. She stowed away on the tiller.”
“I know. I sent her to hide in the market. We’ll go through and get her on our way back to the gate.”
Melanie shot the Ven in the leg again, and it went down, leaving it vulnerable to pila blades. The Ven was catching on, though. As the Aratian stepped in to slice at its armor straps, it slashed the man across the stomach. He dropped his blade and fell down. Lithia moved in to strike back immediately. Another shot from Melanie elicited a cry of pain from the Ven before Lithia silenced it.
Zane was already with the man on the ground, whose shaking hands clutched his own stomach. Lithia was afraid of what she might see if he moved them. He struggled to keep his eyes open. The other Aratians who had been helping made a protective semicircle around them. The tiller prevented an attack from behind.
“How bad is it?” one of them asked, glancing back.
Zane shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do for him.” The Aratian woman cursed. Moments later, his eyes closed and his whole body, including his shaking, bloody hands, relaxed.
Lithia didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. She looked around at the carnage. Everything stank of metal, sweat, and rancid Ven. There were a lot of Ven bodies, but even more humans. Parents, siblings, children. How many more would die?
Before the despair took over, Benjamin came over the comms and called the retreat. Victoria followed up with her own order, just to be sure.
Most people stayed in groups and fought their way to a better position to fall back, but some just ran. The Vens quickly caught on to what they were doing and began a new tactic. As people fled, Vens grabbed at them and bit them, spiking their adrenaline and compelling them to fight. Berserkers.
A few of the bitten turned on their own, making the retreat more panicked than it already was. Some chased Aratians into the market, and set Lithia into immediate motion.
“Evy.”
Zane followed her into the market, but Melanie and the others in their group kept moving toward the gate. She hoped someone would warn Benjamin about the Ven-bitten Berserkers.
Lithia wove in and out of the stalls, calling Evy’s name, but she only seemed to attract the Berserkers, whom she stunned. Finally, Evy came crawling out of a cabinet several rows down.
“Look out!” Zane said, but it was too late. In the distraction of finding Evy, she didn’t notice the Berserker until it burst from behind one of the draped sheets between stalls. It knocked her down and pinned her rifle to her body. Evy screamed. The Berserker, an enraged woman, clawed at her face, scratching her neck with her fingernails. Zane tried to pull her off, but she elbowed him in the face. The break gave Lithia just enough freedom to roll out from underneath the woman.
Zane grabbed the woman’s braid, yanking her back, giving Lithia the time she needed to raise her weapon and fire. Zane caught her and laid her gently on the ground. There was no time to move her or any other Berserkers they’d stunned here in the market.
“Take Evy to the gate,” Lithia said.
“Where are you going?” Zane said.
“I’m the only one with a stun rifle,” she said, climbing up on top of a counter. She reached, grabbed the roof of the stall, and swung a leg up. She pulled herself on top of the market stall and looked at the chaos, men and women trailed by Vens. Above the colored fabric covering the market’s walkways, she had a clear view. It was hard to be sure which ones had been bitten, but a Berserker’s gait was uneven. Some of them were running off into the town itself. She stunned as many as she could, jumping from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the edge of the market.
The Vens paused at a distance from the people who had retreated to the gate. They, too, seemed to be regrouping, but there was something more. They were waiting for something.
Lithia hopped down and jogged toward the gate area, which was well lit by Ficaran floodlights. She could see the men and women who had just retreated and regrouped applying bandages and reloading their weapons behind a wall of militiamen led by Benjamin.
In that moment, the gate finally gave way, and a horde of fresh, growling Vens poured inside the walls. The other group of Vens who had been holding back at a distance poured in from the opposite side, flanking the humans. The exhausted soldiers scrambled into formation, and Lithia put on a burst of speed.
Somewhere in the chaos were Evy and Zane, and she had to find them.
38. DIONE
Dione left the darkness of the Ven ship, only to emerge into the darkness of the night. The moon loomed large in the sky, even though it was half full. She had never been on a planet with only one moon before. Home had two, and Barusia would have had five.
After her eyes adjusted, she blinked a few more times, just to make sure what she was seeing was real.
Michael’s forces still engaged the Vens who had been guarding the ships. She saw a few bodies from both sides on the ground, but behind them, another force was emerging. From the tree line, from the same direction as Michael had come, another band of Vens was preparing to attack.
Michael hadn’t been pursuing a few remaining Vens. They had herded him here. The other group of Vens moved into position to flank his men. Their shouts indicated they saw the incoming threat and prepared to fight on two fronts, but Dione was not close enough to see the fear she knew must be on their faces.
She hesitated, then took a few steps toward the battle that raged in the distance. There had to be something she could do.
Brian grabbed her by the hand, gently pulling her back toward the larger ship. “We need to complete our mission,” he said. “Michael’s men can handle themselves.”
She hoped so. If Michael lost, more Vens would come for them. She and Brian ducked into the Invader. They had to be quick.
Wary of the professor’s warning about a Ven on board, Dione led the way in silence. She only checked her manumed once for directions as she made her way through the ship to the professor. He was on the main bridge. Alone.
Professor Oberon looked up when they entered, hand twitching to the flare gun at his hip.
“Where’s Bel?” she asked.
“She’s downloading the datacore onto her manumed. She’s got something to prove,” Professor Oberon said. He sounded annoyed. Or stressed.
“Why do you think there’s a Ven on board?” Brian asked.
“Bel sent me a message that she saw one,” the professor said. “I told her to come back, but she wouldn’t.”
“What if it got her?” Dione said.
“I don’t think that’s the reason she’s not responding. She was dead set on getting that datacore.”
“Then we need to find that Ven,” Dione said.
“Yes, but there’s something else,” the professor said. “I’ve looked into shutting off the power to the primary array, but there are too many backups. If it triggers an automatic signal like it did for you on the Marauder, it will be impossible to shut them all down in time on a ship this size.”
“Then how can we help?” Dione asked.
“We need to fly the ship to Sam. She can destroy it.”
Dione’s head snapped up to meet the professor’s eyes. “While we’re on board?”
“No, we’ll get it into position, then take the escape pods. We’ll be at a safe distance when Sam blows it up.”
Dione looked around the bridge. So many symbols. Zane’s plan was to eventually figure out how to fly a Ven ship, but not in the limited time she and the professor had. Once the Vens were defeated, they could take the necessary time to decode the controls. “How are you going to fly this thing?”
“We don’t have to fly it properly. We just have to get it off the ground and high enough in the air for Sam to blast it.”
Sam interrupted, speaking over the professor’s manumed. “I’ve sent you the altitude requirements.”
“Here’s my concern,” Professor Oberon began. “That’s navigation up there.” He pointed to the console. “In order to initialize the engines and lift off, you have to put your hand in that.”
Dione looked more closely and discovered the problem. “It’s designed for Ven physiology. Even my small fingers won’t go far enough into those openings.”
“They were meant for the tips of Ven claws. We need to find that Ven Bel saw and bring back its right hand.”
Dione wrinkled her nose, but she was surprised to find that it was more in anticipation of how bad a severed Ven hand would smell, rather than discomfort with dismembering one.
“Where do we start?” Brian asked. “This ship is huge.”
“I have a feeling it will find us,” Professor Oberon said.
They made a fair bit of noise as they made their way to the energy hub, hoping to increase their chances. Considering the size of the ship, Dione was surprised by how quickly they crossed its path. As soon as she saw the Ven, she realized why it had stayed behind.
The Ven looked like it had survived an explosion of some kind. Its face was blackened on one side, and some of its plating was cracked or completely missing. Dione wondered just how much a Ven’s regenerative capabilities could repair. She glanced at its right side. The claws there looked intact. And sharp.
Even injured, the Ven growled fiercely, but it moved to retreat.
“It’s backing up,” Brian said.
“It’s running away,” the professor said. “I’ve never heard of a Ven running away from a battle before.”
“It may be leading us into a trap,” Dione said, recalling the Ven who tried to use Bel as bait back on the Calypso. “Be careful.”
The three followed at a distance, unsure of what was happening. The Ven stopped at a console for a moment. Brian rushed forward, seizing the opportunity, but before Dione could follow, a door closed in front of her, cutting her off.
“Brian!” Dione shouted. To the professor, she said, “It must have been trying to separate us.”
“Vens don’t run without a reason,” the professor said. “That room is the location of a backup communications terminal.”
“Brian is trapped in there,” Dione said, trying to temper the panic in her voice. “I don’t think he’s worried about shutting down the system at the moment.”
“You misunderstand. I think I’ve figured it out,” Professor Oberon said. “Those recorder discs. Not only do they transmit memories, they are also used for short-range communication. This Ven’s recorder is damaged. You saw its face. It needs to tell its comrades that there are intruders on the ship.”
“It’s going to kill Brian,” she said.
“Not if he keeps it busy for a few minutes. I’m going to try to open the door.”
Dione waited impatiently for about fifteen seconds before she heard a single gunshot. How many times had Brian fired at the secondary array console back on the Marauder? Four times? Five? He was probably out of ammo, and she’d had enough of waiting.
“I’ve got another idea,” she said. “Keep working on the door.”
Dione found the nearest access to the vents. They were even colder than she remembered, but they were the fastest way into that room. In another minute, she’d made her way to the vents in the room. She could see Brian and the Ven, but didn’t waste time trying to figure out who was winning. With a few kicks, she broke through the vent register and fell to the floor.
She landed on her feet, then tumbled, banging up her knee. It hurt, but she’d live. She unsheathed the machete and charged.
She was reckless. The Ven swatted her back with its clawed hand, drawing blood. Another gunshot echoed in the enclosed space, leaving her ears ringing again. Brian was on the ground, but had pushed himself up against a wall. He tried to fire again, but the gun clicked in vain. The Ven continued to advance. It knew an easy target when it saw one.
At that moment, the doors opened and Professor Oberon entered. Dione watched him size up the situation in an instant, draw the flare gun, and fire at the Ven’s weakened plating.
The Ven’s wail of pain was almost as bad as the gunshots. Dione looked away for just a moment before coming to her senses. She took the machete and jammed it between the Ven’s plates. The wailing stopped.
The professor was helping Brian to his feet.
“I’m fine,” Brian insisted. “Just a bit dazed.”
“We’ll check you out later,” the professor replied. “Dione, get the arm. We can’t be sure if he got a message out. We need to move fast.”
Dione hacked away at the joint until she was holding her oozing prize, a Venatorian hand, complete with claws.
They hustled back to the bridge, where the professor held up the holo display. In the time it took Dione to blink, the Ven symbols had turned into words. At least, some of them. There were a lot of Ven symbols that would not translate.
Brian stared at the holo display, amazed. Apparently, they didn’t have holos here, at least among the Ficarans. His awe shifted to confusion. “You’re sure we can get off the ship?”
“In the escape pods,” Professor Oberon said. “I need Dione here to help me, but someone has to check on the pods, make sure they’re here and intact.”
“That leaves me, then,” he said. “I’ll need directions.”
“Dione, do you mind?” Oberon asked, nodding to her manumed. She could tell he was uncertain about what was going on with her and Brian, but he knew something was up.
“Here, it’s fine,” she said. The communicator he had was not as sophisticated as her manumed and didn’t have the Ven ship layouts loaded. She programmed her manumed to give him directions. “The pods should be here or here,” she said, pointing to the display.
“Thanks,” he said. He looked into her eyes and took a breath like he was going to say something, but she turned away before he had the chance. She didn’t have time for this right now. She heard his steps fade away.
Professor Oberon gave her a questioning look, but she ignored it. They had a Ven ship to get off the ground, and that needed all of her focus.
The professor took his time scanning each panel, and Dione looked over his shoulder, trying to fill in the blanks.
“So, what do you think? That one’
s navigation,” he said, “but I don’t know which of those two stations over there controls the power flow.” Dione had wondered the same thing. There were too many of what she assumed were abbreviations on these panels. Once or twice it was actually easier to look at the incomplete Ven symbol to see if it matched one she had studied.
“Trial and error?” she asked. She was annoyed to fall back on that process yet again under such serious circumstances.
“I guess so,” he said.
The professor pressed some buttons on the first station, and nothing happened. When he gave the second a try, the claw interface lit up. Breathing through her mouth, she inserted the Ven hand, which initiated the display. Professor Oberon looked over her shoulder.
“Let’s give it a try,” he said, using the holo interface to help him start the ship. Everything shook as they lifted off the ground, but they’d done it. They were in the air, rising higher each minute.
“Brian, did you find the escape pods?” the professor asked over his manumed.
“Yes, they were at the first location, just like you said, but I don’t know how to get them working.”
“We’ll be there soon,” the professor said, ending the call. “I’ll get us up to altitude, while you grab Bel on the way. Here.” He offered her the manumed.
“Keep it. I memorized the layout. I can find my way to Bel. You think you can set an autopilot?”
“No, that’s why I’m sending you ahead. At least take the holo interface with the translator. That way you can figure out the escape pods by the time I get there.” The professor would keep them moving up in the air without any significant forward motion while she figured out the escape pods.
“See you soon,” she said, rushing down the corridor toward the energy hub. That’s where Bel was, downloading all of the data she could. As terrifying as all this was, the prospect of finding out more about the Vens was exciting. Dione couldn’t help but think what they could do with all that tactical, biological, and cultural information, whether or not Bel was right that the Vens were prey.